I Will Never Forget
by voodooprincess1331
Summary: A lot can happen in seven days. Much more than one would think possible. In the blink of an eye, everything can change; it has that power. [NejiTen][LeeTen][Love Triangle]
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter One_

"Mom, you have to get out of the house, eventually," Neji Hyuga said when he entered his mother's pitch-black room with her breakfast and her Fluoxetine. It had been almost a year since his father's murder, however his mother continued to suffer through depression that would knock her off of her feet for days at a time. Sometimes, she would lock herself in her room for a few days, not even allowing herself to see the light of day.

Neji continued to worry about his mother's health. The doctors said that there was nothing more that they could do. To put it bluntly, they said that she was going to have to take her medication daily, and learn to live with the mental disorder that she suffered from. Easy for them to say: her manic depression was not just affecting her; if affected everybody around her. She couldn't work, and had been laid off from her job as a university professor in Ancient Greek History.

Neji sighed when his mother didn't budge under her sheets. This had been going on for four days straight, and he didn't know what to do. He was running out of ideas to make her happy. When it came down to it, maybe she just needed to get back on her feet, and meet another man. But how in the world could she meet any other human being if she couldn't even talk to her own son?

"Natsumi," Neji called her name, knowing that she always hated it when he called her by her first name. She felt it disrespectful towards the parental figure, and used to slap him as a teenager whenever he would do so out of spite. However, not even the very thing that used to make her spit balls of fire could reanimate her. "Mom, you have to take your medicine."

Her life wasn't the only one that had been impacted by the death of Hizashi; she couldn't seem to comprehend the fact that Neji both grieved over the death of his father, and he also loathed him for leaving them alone in this world.

Natsumi and Hizashi had been together since high school, and had married right out of college. They had both attended the same university and received doctoral degrees; Natsumi's in Ancient Greek History, and Hizashi's in nuclear chemistry. They were both brilliant people who had experienced successful lives, but their fruition hadn't lasted long enough. They weren't old enough to end like this.

Neji had been born to his parents when they were twenty eight, and they felt that he was the greatest gift that could ever be presented to them. However, when he was born, the doctors found cancerous cells beginning to spread on Natsumi's cervix, and had performed a hysterectomy the day after he was born. Much to his parents' dismay, Natsumi and Hizashi could conceive no more children. Because of this, they cared for their son with everything they had. However, their careers took up most of their time, so Neji had been passed along through babysitter after babysitter up until he reached his sophomore year in high school.

"Mom, don't make me do it," Neji threatened, placing the tray with her oatmeal, orange juice, and Fluoxetine on the surface of her wooden dresser. He moved over to the window that faced east; faced the rising sun. When Natsumi didn't make a peep, Neji groaned and grasped the cloth of the green plaid curtains, ripping them open viciously, allowing the light of the new day to pour into his mother's cave of a bedroom. He heard the sound of pillows ruffling, and glanced over his shoulder to watch his mother throw a pillow over her head to block the sunlight.

"Neji, mommy is trying to sleep," she groaned, emotionally drained from her tragedy-induced mental disorder. Neji revolved around to face the bed, placing one hand on his hip while the other pushed the hair out of his face, bulldozing it back over his crown.

"Don't talk to me like I'm four," he muttered, becoming agitated with his mother's lack of willpower.

_I'm twenty-three._

He dragged his feet along the chocolate and gray carpet, moving back across the beautiful bedroom that his parents had designed together. The walls were stained a stunning forest green, and the ceiling painted bark brown. All of the furniture in the room complimented the colors of the walls, being an off-white or gray in color.

"Mom, please just take your medicine," I said, almost begging her. "If you're not going to do it for yourself, then do it for me, at least. Do it for your son."

"Neji, please leave me be," Natsumi didn't bother removing the deep gray pillow from her face, and so her words became muffled. However, Neji was still able to make out the agitating request of his sick mother. "Go play with Hinata and Hanabi."

Neji was taken aback by this alternate option, and had to stop for a minute to process her spoken thoughts. Did she even remember anything that had happened within the past year, or did her memory simply stop the moment she found out that her husband had been killed?

"Mom, Hinata and Hanabi moved away from here five months ago, remember?" he told her, attempting to jog her memory. "They moved back in April."

"Oh," she said.

"_Oh?"_ Neji's thoughts grumbled, running out of patience for his mother. _That's all you have to say? "Oh?"_

Becoming flustered with Natsumi's lacking will to start her life again, Neji huffed out a heavy sigh and turned for the door, stomping towards it in anger.

"Fine." He placed his hand on the doorknob, not even bothering to look over his shoulder at the lump under all of the pillows and thick comforter. "If you don't want to help yourself, then why should I want to help you, either?" Almost hoping for a retort from Natsumi, Neji stalled for a moment or two before gritting his teeth bounding into the hallway, slamming the mud-brown door shut.

God damn, that woman was beginning to irritate Neji to the point where he didn't even want to bother with her anymore. Nothing he did was ever good enough; he could never get her out of bed whenever she fell into the rotten hands of her sickness. She didn't want to get herself out of bed, and she sure as hell didn't want others trying to do the latter.

In all honesty, Neji wanted to give up hope for her. She couldn't seem to see that she wasn't the only one suffering from the pain. She wasn't the only one who had lost someone dear to her. She lost her husband, but Neji lost his father. While it sounds harsh, Natsumi could always find a new husband, but Neji would never be able to call another man his father, because none of them would be such.

This brought on a whole wave of pain that he had found a way to endure over the past year. All he had to do was shut it out, never allowing that pain to seep through his cells and attack his nerves. While it was all easier said than done, he had accomplished it about a week or so after the death of Hizashi. While there had been those few days of unending grief and sorrow, he quickly found the will to suppress that pain and move on with his life.

But Natsumi...she was different. She was weak. She gave into the darkness and despair, allowing it to swallow her whole and send her into oblivion. It was almost sickening, how she laid there in bed, practically waiting to die. The pity that she had for herself was disgusting, and he couldn't take it anymore. A year had passed; she had to learn to move on. Yes, it was going to be difficult, but Neji had made it through okay, and so would she.

The anger that boiled within him caused him to ball his fists and snort out a forced breath of hot air. His blood steamed and bubbled under his skin, and he decided that he needed to get out of this house right now, or he might start yelling at his mother. He clomped down the soft, carpeted hallway and into the sunlit living room, where he stopped and stared out the window, shoving both of his fists to his hips.

He didn't know where he was going to go, but he knew that he had to get out. Off of the buffet table along the side of the wall, Neji grabbed his keys and his wallet and shoved them into his pockets violently and with enough force to where the seams could have torn. In all honesty, he didn't give a damn. He wanted to get out, and he wanted almost to forget his mother here. It had gotten to the point where he just didn't care anymore. If she didn't care, why should he?

But he couldn't possibly just abandon his mother. Realistically, that would be almost too cruel, if he just left her behind. She had already lost her husband, and if she lost her one and only son, then it could be easily predicted that she would never get out of bed again.

Neji shook his head and bounded over to the front door, opening it without a thought and letting the sunlight shimmer on his face. For that first moment, his eyes instinctively squinted shut in order to protect his retinas. The September air was unseasonably warm, except for the cool breeze that kissed the skin of his face. He turned his moonlight gray eyes to the silver '68 Camaro that he had parked behind his mother's raven Mercedes. His father's '63 Buick Riviera was still jammed in park at the very top of the driveway, covered by a weathered tarp.

Stopping for a minute, Neji closed his eyes, remembering the fading memories of the days when he and his father would work on the Buick, even when there was nothing wrong with it. Hizashi treasured that old car, and kept it up-to-date with new radios and yearly paint jobs.

Feeling a sort of sadness wash over him as these recollections soared back to him, Neji's eyebrows pulled together and he shook his head, removing himself from their trajectory. Touching his fingertips to his forehead, Neji allowed a deep breath to escape from the bottom of his lungs.

"I've got to get out of here," he said to himself and fished his keys back out of his left pocket, pinching the key to his Camaro between his thumb and index finger. Jabbing it into the keyhole and twisting almost violently, Neji swung the door open and fell into the driver's seat before yanking it closed again. He took no time to start the roaring engine, and he didn't sit there and listen to it rumble ferociously, like he normally would have. No, he had to get away from this house, before the hard work of suppressing his emotions unraveled like yarn.

Consciously, he didn't know where he was going as he slammed his foot on the gas and backed out of the flat driveway. A part of him didn't really care where he was going, so long as it was away from his mother and her constant moping.

The streets of Konoha were filled with people taking leisurely strolls. Children frollicked on the sidewalks, some on their hands and knees, scratching on the cement with multi colored chalk. Others jumped rope with groups of friends.

It was too bad that they would have to grow up one day and leave all of these carefree antics behind them. They would become the target for piles and piles of responsibilities, all of which must be completed, or else somebody would frown upon them. They will soon advance through their grade levels, and upon reaching their final two years of high school, they will think it to be so difficult. However, real life in the real world was a slap in the face, compared to high school.

Neji sighed and removed one hand from the wheel, resting his left elbow on the open window and leaning his head on the palm of his hand. With long and strong fingers, he ran his metacarpals through his flowing, pin-straight hair.

Life was so much easier in high school. He had both of his parents, who were both highly educated and well-liked by the community. Natsumi had not yet become mentally sick with her manic depression, and so he didn't have to care for her or make sure that she took her medication. In high school, he was looked up to by his cousin, Hinata, and was perceived as a genius by the school in its entirety.

Unconsciously, Neji turned into the parking lot of his usual place in Konoha and parked in his typical space on the end. The tavern had been a place that Neji had found himself coming to again and again, his visits becoming more frequent as time passed. Before his father's death, he had only visited alehouses on rare occasion, typically with some old buddies from high school and college. Now, it was all he could do not to drink himself into oblivion.

Neji cut the ignition and shoved the driver's door open, the pointed tip at the bottom corner just barely missing the curb. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the shiny silver door smashing back shut with the rest of the car's body. Smothering his keys back within his pocket, Neji trudged up the sidewalk and made his way to the entrance, where he could hear the music blaring with a song that he was unfamiliar with. He extended his right arm and snaked his fingers around the knob, twisting it and bulldozing through the arch. Immediately, the stench of alcohol and cigarette smoke blasted through his nostrils, staining them with the odor. By now, however, he was practically used to the secondhand smoke poisoning his alveoli.

He took the usual and direct route straight to the front of the bar, where the blonde lady with the brown eyes stood, washing out used glasses. At her side was the other familiar bartender; a man whose dark hair matched his Klingon beard, and who always seemed to have a cigarette clenched in between his teeth.

Neji sat down at the typical barstool on the far right, in front of the blonde lady. He held his elbows firmly on the wooden surface of the bar and leaned onto them, crunching his body tightly. Both of the bartenders glanced at him and grinned.

"Neji Hyuga," the man said in a confident and booming voice as he poured a glass of bourbon on the rocks. "Haven't seen you in a few days."

Neji glanced towards the man, who he had become good friends with, and he nodded at him. "Asuma," he greeted, and then turned his attention to the beautiful brown-eyed girl, with whom he had also made fair acquaintance with. "Tsunade."

"I figured we'd see you here today," Tsunade said and set the glass that she had been drying down on the upper level of the "backstage" bar. In unison, Asuma and Tsunade sent their glasses flying in one another's direction, switching the filled glass with the empty one. "Word on the street says that your mother keeps getting worse." Tsunade transferred the bourbon to the surface of the bar, touching the perspiring glass to the back of Neji's hand.

He cradled it within his fingertips and swirled the bitter drink around in a circle, watching as the liquid was powerful enough to move the solid ice.

"You might as well just give me that bottle, Asuma," Neji warned the man who was running the show this afternoon. Asuma chuckled and placed the bottle aside, prepared to refill Neji's glass quickly. To answer Tsunade, his eyes flickered at her, who payed attention to him, while also doing her job. She placed a bowl of nuts on the bar in front of Neji, then grabbed a few in between her delicate finger tips. "She is getting worse. I can't even get her out of bed anymore."

"Sorry to say this, because she is your mother," Tsunade started breaking the shell of a pistachio and popping the seed into her mouth, "but maybe she needs to get laid."

"She needs to do something." Neji brought the glass to his lips, and already he could foreshadow the burning of the hard liquor clawing down his throat. Even still, he allowed the alcohol to seep through the part in his lips and pool into his mouth. He swallowed hard; the first sip was always the worst. "I can't do it anymore."

"Have you tried talking to her about it?"

"I've tried everything in the book." Neji took another gulp of bourbon; it went down easier than the first sip, but it still inflamed his throat. "But any time she speaks to me anymore, it's like she's talking to a little kid."

"Maybe you should just get her out of the house," Asuma suggested, moving behind Tsunade to the cabinet containing an alcoholic's heaven. He heaved out the ingredients for Sex on the Beach. Neji watched him as he skillfully combined the alcohols and the juices. However, when Neji glanced at the bar seats in front of Asuma, he took notice to how they were all empty. Having a feeling that he knew what Asuma was practicing for, Neji spun around on his own bar stool and began scanning the room around him, looking for a certain lady.

There were a lot of people here today, but with sharp eyes, Neji was able to pick out the black-haired beauty in the form-fitting, red cocktail dress. Her hair was a majestic mess as it fell around her face and down to the bottoms of her scapulas. She was standing in charcoal platform pumps around a round table with two other girls and a guy. It didn't look as if the guy had any intention for any of the women at the table, nor the other way around.

Revolving back around, Neji exchanged a glance with Tsunade, who snickered at her coworker. Acting as if he was unknowing of Asuma's practice in making Kurenai Yuhi's favorite mixed drink, he replied to the statement that the head-over-heels bartender had made earlier.

"You don't think I've tried?" Neji downed half of his drink and placed it back down on the wooden surface of the bar. The ice clinked as it began to melt, and pieces of "the rocks" began falling over one another, sliding around inside the glass. "She doesn't want to do anything but lay around in her bed and sleep."

"Take her on a cruise," he said nonchalantly, bending over to examine the hourglass-shaped mixed drink. He wanted everything to be perfect, even though this round was merely practice for when he worked up the nerve to talk to her. "There's one at the end of next week, and there are still spaces open." Leaving his creation for only a moment, Asuma turned to the counter at his back and grabbed a flyer off of it and handing the brightly colored advertisement.

_This might not be such a bad idea._ Neji pondered the idea as he bit the tip of the glass containing his hard liquor. The vapors were strong, and he could feel them practically burning off the hairs inside of his nose. _If, of course, I can even get her up long enough to invite her._

"Hmm." Neji thought aloud, really and truly wondering how he was going to get this idea across to her. In all honesty, it was, indeed, a good plan, and he gave kudos to Asuma for suggesting it. However, if Natsumi refused to listen to what he had to say, then there was no way he could get her to pack her bags and get in the car with him.

Tsunade smirked and began moving out of the space behind the bar. Asuma didn't seem to notice, but Neji did.

"I'm going to tell Kurani that she's got a phone call," she said to Neji, and while it sounded drowned out by the music blasting throughout the bar, Asuma's head snapped in her direction.

"Tsunade, wait!" he called out to her, but there was no stopping her. She walked with a bounce over to the ladies' table and already initiated conversation with the woman that Asuma had fallen for. It looked so easy for Tsunade to go over and to speak with other women, but that was probably because she was a woman herself. They could relate easily, and friendliness between them seemed to radiate off of their smiles.

Neji turned his attention back to the flyer in his hand and continued to nibble on the inedible glass cup. For some reason, his thoughts were positive on this one, and maybe - just maybe - he would be able to get his mother out of bed for this. It would be a fun mother-and-son trip, and quite possibly, she would find a man to hit it off with.

_A cruise, huh?_


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two_

The hot, soapy suds ran down their conjoined bodies as they embraced under the artificial waterfall. Tenten constricted her thighs around her fiancé's hips squeezing him in between her strong muscles. He sandwiched her between his hard and fit body and the wall of the shower in their apartment. She threw her head back whenever he entered her forcefully, thrusting himself deep within her.

"Lee!" she cried out in a loud and passionate wail. He could always hit that coveted spot inside her; she had never met another man who was so accurate. Squeezing his hardened member inside of her, Tenten milked her lover with all of her strength. Lee gasped and turned his mouth to her neck, biting her throat viciously. He sucked the flesh of her throat depravedly and in an animalistic manner.

When Lee began to waylaid his speed, Tenten screamed out, clawing his back. "Don't stop!" she held him tighter, clenching him between her lips. "Faster, Lee!"

The water beat down on them as they embraced romantically and practically savagely. He had just proposed to her over lunch on the lake, and now it was as if they couldn't get enough of one another's love.

Lee abandoned Tenten's throat and moved back to her mouth, all but chomping down on her delicate lips. She initiated the dance, and allowed her tongue to meet with his, where they tangoed with vivacious energy. Feeling every curve of his mouth, Tenten allowed her tongue to brush along the roof of Lee's mouth, feeling his perfectly straight teeth against her taste buds.

In a stretched, tense pain, Tenten's legs began to shake as her muscles clenched involuntarily. This contraction began with her calves, slithering up to her quadriceps and itching towards her hips. Her lower body, though tensing up, continued to move with the figure of her dear fiancé, thrust after thrust after pleasurable, agonizing thrust.

She constricted her fingers through his drenched onyx hair, clasping his locks tightly as she felt herself coming closer and closer to her climax. Her heartbeat fired rapidly, trying to pump enough blood through her body to make up for the lack of oxygen. This physical activity was quite strenuous, but utmost appealing and satisfactory. The air within her lungs seemed to be nothing more than water vapor from the steam that was produced by the scalding shower. With her chest tight, Tenten couldn't seem to catch her breath, as with every drive from Lee, she came closer and closer to falling off the edge and into an ocean of ecstasy.

He was almost there, too; she could feel it, feel his slick, manly juices escape him. Almost. Their animalistic behavior became even more wild as they were both desperate for the release. Lee pounded inside of her harder and harder, feeling himself pulsing in between her legs. A cyclone raged inside of his stomach as he felt it coming; he couldn't hold it any longer.

Tenten was there. She felt it coming, and she hoped that he would finish with her. Whether he did or didn't, she needed to come.

All at once, cries of extended pleasure broke out of their throats and echoed in the shower stall. It was a release of all these hormones and all sorts of feelings and emotions. While it is true that this is neither her first time or his, Tenten felt as though she was being shrouded by the emotional touch of losing her virginity all over again.

Simultaneously, they gasped for air, but all they got was steam. Lee pressed his forehead to Tenten's clavicle, kissing her chest.

Swallowing hard, Tenten released her hold around his waist and cautiously returned her feet to the safety of the wet floor.

"Wow," she puffed. It was truly amazing; she had been involved in sports her entire life, playing volleyball in the fall and soccer in the spring. She was still physically fit, just coming out of college. But nothing - no kind of workout or physical training - could have prepared her for the fatigue that poisoned her after an intense sexual encounter.

Lee, himself, was a highly skilled personal fitness trainer, but even he was having difficulty catching his breath after this taxing activity.

"Wow is right," he said when he removed his mouth from her water-beaded flesh. Slowly and without much energy left in him, Lee removed himself from inside of her and stepped backwards into the flow of the pulsating water. "Let us hope that the power of youth grants us with more energy to go again."

Tenten rolled her eyes and grinned, taking a wobbling step forward and drenching herself in the artificial rain. Her hair twisted as the water matted the individual strands.

"I just can't believe we're getting married," she said with a seductive smirk on her face as she constricted her arms around her lover's neck.

"I cannot believe that you agreed to marry me." Lee twisted around to grab a bottle of shampoo that fragranced the bathroom with lavender. Squirting some into his muscular hand, he rubbed it between his palms before beginning to massage it into his beautiful fiancé's chocolate tresses.

Lee and Tenten had first become acquainted through college - a typical, nothing-special community college. It was their sophomore year that they initially came in contact, and at first, their relationship had not been great. In fact, they actually loathed one another.

Upon meeting one another, Tenten saw Lee as a try-hard and an overachiever, which bugged her to no end. He was a dork with bushy eyebrows and a bowl haircut, and she knew - or at least thought she knew - that she would never become anything more than classmates with him.

However, when the guy she had had her eye set on had brutally rejected her, Lee was the only one there that seemed in touch with the emotions of others. A beautiful friendship and a new relationship had occurred then.

Tenten smiled as she remembered the tenderness that Lee had shown her that day, and she turned around, her back facing her new fiancé. He ran his fingers through her hair, rinsing the lathered suds out of her short and curling tresses. His touch caused little shivers to run down the length of her spine, despite the piping temperature of the water that beat down on her.

When Lee was finished scrubbing her hair, Tenten reached out of the shower, shoving her hand through the curtain, and grabbed a towel. Cautiously, she stepped out of the slippery shower and planted her feet on the rug that had been strategically placed at the base of the tub. Now that she was no longer trapped in the small confinement of steam, she could breathe. At the same time, the air around her was multiple degrees cooler. Goosebumps emerged along the surface of her flesh, and the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood erect. Her nipples grew hard and jutted out from her breasts in a reaction to the blatant temperature change.

Swiftly, she pinched the edges of the year-old towel and shoved the other end to the ground, causing it to unfold quickly so that she may wrap herself within its length. She covered herself from her breasts to the tops of her thighs, shaking off a chill. Her feet touched the tile of the bathroom floor, sending a spike of sub-zero freeze shooting up her leg. Moving towards the door, Tenten stood on the balls of her feet, aiding swifter movement. She yanked open the door that had not been completely latched, and she stepped out of the bathroom, moving into her room.

Her apartment was small, and didn't have anything fancy. She was not a rich person, and nowhere along the lines of being wealthy. However, she was content with the way her life had turned out. Money couldn't buy the happiness that she had found herself stumbling into.

In fact, had she been born into wealth, the odds of her meeting Lee were very slim. Had she been rich, the odds of her attending a community college would have been very minimal. She probably would have been sent to a university with thousands of other people who would cram in the rooms with her, just to listen to the professor give his or her lecture.

Tenten dried the beads of water off of her shoulders before throwing her towel on top of her teal sheets. She stood completely naked in her room, her fingertips brushing her forearms tenderly. The rock that was positioned on her left ring finger shimmered in the light that poured in from the window before her.

_I'm getting married,_ she admitted to her thoughts with a crinkle of her lips. _Lee and I are getting married._

It had been so unexpected, the way he had proposed earlier this afternoon. He had taken her out to the lake to have a romantic picnic, and she had not expected anything, because they had been talking about doing so for quite a while now. But, instead of staying on land, Lee had rented them a pontoon boat for the afternoon, and they had spent a good deal of time on the water; they mostly just floated around in the center of the titanic lake, not wanting to waste gas.

Lee and Tenten had packed the lunch together in the morning, and they both knew exactly what was in the traditional picnic basket. Or, at least, she _thought_ she knew what was all in the basket.

They sat on the floor of the pontoon and began setting everything up for their lunch; Tenten carefully slit the twelve-inch sub into two smaller parts, giving him the bigger section, while Lee removed the two wine glasses from the depths of the hand-woven basket. He poured an authentic Italian wine into those two glasses, and when Tenten wasn't looking, he slipped something into her drink.

The afternoon passed by leisurely, and they had eaten every last crumb of the food that they had packed. Despite the fact that they had finished the food, they continued to sit out in the middle of the water and talk, sipping on their crimson wine. Lee waited for her to reach the bottom of her glass in strong anticipation, but he never showed his excitement. Somehow, he was able to keep it all inside, so that Tenten wouldn't suspect a thing.

It had taken a good hour before Tenten finished her drink. She never looked inside the glass, rather, simply caressed the edge with her lips and allowed the chilled liquid to flow into her mouth. But something was different as she took one of her final sips; something solid brushed along her bottom lip, and she raised an eyebrow, turning her eye into her crystal glass. At the very bottom, she saw something, but couldn't quite make out what it was. Daringly, she pressed her lips to the glass and gulped the rest of the liquid, not allowing the solid object to permeate her mouth. When the barrier was gone and she could see through her glass, she saw it.

At the very bottom of her wine glass sat a silver band with a beautifully cut diamond jutting out of the top. It took her a minute to realize what exactly was happening, and she didn't even notice Lee position himself on a single knee, in the traditional proposal stance. Tenten normally wasn't a cryer, but she could feel all of the emotions welling up inside of her until they just burst out in the form of tears.

Lee was proposing.

Tenten smiled as she gazed down upon the ring that seemed to complete her finger. It was as if this ring was the one that was supposed to bind her to a man; it was as if it was destiny. Sighing once, she glanced over in the direction of the bathroom, where her dear lover washed away the day's grime. She never thought that any man would find her desirable enough to make his wife; she wasn't exactly girly, and she didn't like when men doubted her abilities. She was a strong, independent woman who didn't need a man. While she didn't _need _one, though, having one was nice. Especially for stress relief. There were just some things a man could do that a woman couldn't do by herself.

With a tiny grin forming along her lips, Tenten moved towards her dresser and squatted down to open the bottom drawer. From within it, she picked out a pair of brick red athletic shorts. Standing up straight, she shoved her legs through the top and heaved the top of the shorts up to her hips, where they rested comfortably. From the second drawer, she retrieved a white tank top and slipped it on over her head. She didn't bother with undergarments, thinking them annoying.

Still in her bare feet, Tenten slid over to the door of her room and stepped out into the main section of her apartment. It was a mess right now, she knew, but she had had not a single second to clean it for a while. She had been working so hard at a popular diner on the outskirts of Konoha, appropriately named Treeline Diner.

She was a waitress, and had been so since she started college when she was eighteen. As a loyal employee to the Treeline Diner, the managers loved her, and could always count on her when they needed good work done. Lee would often visit her at work, typically about twenty minutes before her shift would end. He would order enough food for two, and then invite her over whenever she clocked out for the evening.

Little gestures like that warmed her heart and made her wonder why she and Lee didn't get off on the right foot sophomore year. No matter; they were together now.

When she wasn't with Lee or working her shift at the diner, Tenten volunteered her time coaching students and directing them on how to increase their soccer skills at Konoha High School. Originally, it was volunteer work, until the school hired her as a coach and began paying her.

Tenten bent over and began picking up her laundry, tossing it over to a basket whose mouth attempted to engulf the floor below it. Whether it was clean or dirty, she wasn't sure, but to be safe, she tossed it over into the same pile. She got down on her hands and knees, reaching under the couch to see if anything had rolled under it without her permission. Her hand brushed against something large and furry, and it scampered out from under the blue-green sofa.

She glanced over to the side and saw her fuzzy little kitten scrambling to her food bowl. Tenten snickered at the snowball and continued with her quick cleaning. If she got most of the laundry into a basket, the apartment would probably look a thousand times better. And, she supposed, it would probably be best if she washed the dishes that were scattered on practically every flat surface of the apartment.

Between working at the diner, spending time with Lee, and coaching the high school boy's soccer team, Tenten never had enough time to breathe. Luckily for her, it was Sunday, and she had a day off of work. Now, it was all about Lee...and cleaning her apartment.

She had known a girl in high school named Sakura Haruno, who had been so organized, not a pencil was ever out of place. Her locker was always put together, arranged by her classes. She was an excellent student, and Tenten believed that part of her success was in her composition skills.

"I should have had that girl teach me some organizational skills," Tenten sighed and tossed another handful of dirty clothes to the overturned basket. Glancing around the room, she couldn't find any more stray pieces clothing, so she crawled over to the new pile, brushing the garments out of the way so that she could return the basket to sit on its bottom. Sitting on her heels, Tenten began shoving all of the dirty laundry into the plastic lavender basket. Stopping to think, she groaned, and figured that she should probably go check her room for more clothes that needed washed.

Rocking backwards, she propelled herself back up to her feet and revolved on the balls of her feet, facing now her opened bedroom door. Laundry was such a pain. If only clothes could be bought in packs and be disposable, like paper plates. Tenten marched into her room and began her hunt for more dirty clothes.

The water was no longer running in the shower, so she suspected that Lee would be coming out pretty soon. She could hear her fiancé's feet moving across the tiles in the bathroom, and the doorknob rattled as he opened the door covered with a stained glass window that ran along its length.

He stepped out of the bathroom in the jeans he had worn upon coming from the lake to Tenten's apartment. His army-green shirt, she remembered, she had ripped off and thrown to the floor in the main area of the apartment, which meant that it was now engulfed in her pile of dirty clothes. Oops.

No matter. She had plenty of men's T-shirts in her dresser that she often wore to work out or to sleep in. At least that was one less thing that he would have to wash when he returned to his own house.

"What are you doing?" he asked her as she brought herself back to her feet. She brushed off her knees and held the dirty laundry that she had scoped out in her hands.

"This _is_ my only day off, remember?" she scrunched her nose before turning away from Lee, her trajectory being the overflowing plastic basket. "The chores build up over the week, and I do them on Sunday."

"What can I do to help?" he asked, following her to the main sector of the apartment like a lost puppy. Tenten dropped the remainder of the clothes into the basket and pressed her hands to her hips, turning around to face her eager fiancé. Before she could get a word out of her mouth - or even make a decision on if she wanted to make him do something or not - Lee bent down and picked up her laundry basket, holding it as if it wasn't completely stuffed. "I will do your laundry!" he shouted avidly, rushing out of the room without listening to an objection, and without putting a shirt on.

Tenten sighed and pressed her palm to her browline. He was always one to grow excited over the little things. He was just like a little kid.

No matter. With that out of the way, Tenten moved to her coffee table, collecting dirty dishes off of it. She glanced over her shoulder at the square table that was stacked with bowls and cups and turned her eyes to the ceiling in annoyance.

_I really need to invest in disposable dishes._

Tenten placed the plates from the coffee table on the counter by the sink and flipped on the hot water before crouching down in search of the dish soap. The sleek bottle was right in the front, where she always kept it. Cheap, dollar store brands weren't the best, but they sufficed. From in her low position, Tenten raised her arms and squeezed the bottle over the sink, draining a great deal of soap into the water. She shoved the bottle back under the sink without bothering to re-cap it first, and she stood up straight again. After tossing a dried sponge into the bubbly water, she changed her course for the stacks of bowls and glasses on the table by the window. One cup still had grape juice in it from God knows when.

With a flare of her nostrils, Tenten collected stacked the cups into the bowls and carried the dishes waitress style. There was a valuable life skill.

By the time she had retrieved all of the dirty dishes that were scattered about her apartment and piled them in the soapy sink, Lee had come back from the laundry room with the empty basket under his arm. He took the initiative to grab the bag of cat food from beside the counter and pour the mewing kitten a bowl.

"Y'know, Tenten, you should probably start packing your bags," he said as he ran his fingers through the snow white kitten's mane. Tenten's eyebrows furrowed as she turned her head to face him. He stood up and brushed off his hands before placing them on his hips. He grinned at her, and she just couldn't seem to figure out why she needed to pack.

"For what?" She wasn't ready to move out of her own apartment yet, if that was what he was suggesting.

The eagerness in his eyes was evident, and she swore that she saw him bouncing up and down like a child. "Because next Thursday, to celebrate our engagement, you and I are going on a cruise!"


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three_

Neji and Natsumi strolled up to the bridge leading from the deck of the harbor to the entrance of the massive cruise ship. People were crowded on that bridge, packed like sardines as they waited for their turn to board the ship. Glancing around at all of the people, Neji wondered if any of the men would be interested in his mother. He had to do something to keep her out of her depression. Quite frankly, he was surprised that she even agreed to go with him on this escapade.

When he had returned home after talking with Tsunade and Asuma at the bar, Natsumi was still locked in her room, however she had been sitting up in bed and clutching a shirt that Hizashi had worn frequently. She was open to conversation, and had listened to the request of her son. In order to persuade her, Neji had already booked the tickets. He thought through his actions carefully, and decided that if he couldn't win his mother over for the cruise, then he would give the tickets to Asuma, so that he could invite Kurenai. That would be a hell of a first date.

But Natsumi, after such a long persuasion period, finally agreed reluctantly to spend some time with her son.

Neji glanced over at his mother, whose eyes scanned the length of the ship, then examined it up and down. She stared down into the water, watching as the waves cracked against the sturdy sides of the massive boat. Her skin had grown rather pale, and he was just now noticing this; it was probably due to the fact that she hadn't left the house in months.

He turned his attention back to his front, where he watched the back of the crowd's head. He hoped that this was a good idea. It would be terrible if Natsumi simply locked herself in their cabin for the entire week. He was going to have to keep her on her feet in order to give her absolutely no time to fall back into what Tsunade called "depression mode." Of course, this was a cruise, so there were plenty of activities.

According to Asuma, there were parties every night. He also mentioned that there were typically beautiful women, however Neji wasn't interested in finding a date. He had never had luck with women, and had simply given up trying. If there was someone out there for him, she was probably half-way across the world, and he wouldn't meet her.

His eyes drifted to the side, where he caught sight of a pretty brunette girl standing on the opposing entrance bridge. Her hair was shoulder-length and pin-straight, and the wind gently brushed it behind her back. The pale pink tank top that she wore hugged her figure, and she had a beautiful body. Blue jeans shorts barely covered the tops of her thighs, and her wrists exceeded the length of them.

Neji turned his eyes back to the front, rolling them.

_I thought I wasn't interested in finding a girl,_ he thought and shifted his weight. His arms were beginning to ache, because he somehow ended up being the one to carry all of the bags. Oh well. It was a small price to pay for getting his mother out of the house. The line was moving too slow, and Neji was beginning to become antsy. He couldn't help but allow his gray eyes to peek the girl to his right. He didn't know why he couldn't stop looking at her, but when his eyes returned to her again, she noticed her hand entwined with that of another man.

Neji grinned in spite of himself. What was he thinking, looking at a girl like that and thinking she wasn't with another man. Despite the fact that she was with someone, Neji couldn't help but let his eyes slip back into her direction. She was definitely way too pretty for the guy she was with, which meant that he must be a real catch, personality wise.

"What are you looking at?" Natsumi asked her son, her eyes staring up at him. Neji blinked once and returned his mother's gaze. She turned her eyes in the direction that Neji had been staring, and she searched through the crowd on the opposing bridge. "Which one is she?" she asked, examining all of the girls in pretty sundresses.

"It doesn't matter, Mom," he said and took a step forward as the crowd in front of him proceeded onward. Natsumi followed her son's lead, but continued to search through the young ladies that were going to be on this cruise with. "Besides, we're not on this trip so I can meet girls."

"But you can meet them," Natsumi said, and Neji turned his eyes to her. She forced a smile, and he almost had to do a double-take. That was something he had not seen in such a long time, and to be honest, he was thinking that maybe this idea of Asuma's was really going to work out well. If he could get his mother to the point where she could leave the house more often, then this trek would be successful.

"Mom, the only person I'm here for is you."

"Oh, pish-posh!" she said and brushed his long locks over his shoulder. "You should do more things that benefit you, rather than worrying about some old lady."

"You're not that old yet, Mom." Neji couldn't help the small smile that slithered up the sides of his face. They hadn't had a casual conversation in such a long time. It was nice. "Don't start calling yourself old, yet."

The people in front of them took a few more steps towards the entrance of the ship, and Neji shifted his weight to his left foot, giving the right one a break from all the weight he was carrying on his shoulders and arms. He glanced over at the bridge to his left, which wasn't moving as quickly, and he realized that there were more people in that line. They must be either second or third class, he realized.

Someone tapped his shoulder, and Neji turned around to see three beautiful girls standing behind him, grinning. One was a redhead with choppy layers and crimson eyes. She was pretty, despite the fact that her glasses reflected the light of the sun. Another was a blonde, with striking blue eyes. She looked rather spunky, and looked like a lady who wasn't about to let men put her below them. The third had short black hair and charcoal eyes. Something about her seemed familiar, and Neji wondered where he had seen her. Maybe she was one of Tsunade's friends.

"You look awfully familiar," the redhead commented, looking him up and down nonchalantly. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

Natsumi turned around to look at the three ladies that had drawn her son's attention, and she grinned, wondering if he would take the opportunity that had been thrown in his direction; three beautiful women were standing before him. He had to do something.

Neji looked at the trio of girls carefully, only recognizing one - the dark-haired one. The other two, he had never seen before in his life. The redhead especially; if he had come into contact with her, he would have remembered that look. And the blonde, it wasn't often that a woman held herself with such confidence. He would definitely remember her if he had met her earlier.

"I don't think so," he said simply, his eyes glancing across the faces of the women before him. From his right side, he heard a sigh from his mother, and his eyes rolled in her direction. She had pressed the tips of her index, middle, and ring fingers to her forehead.

"I'm sorry," the redhead said. Apparently, she was going to be the spokesperson for their crusade. "I thought I may have known you from somewhere. Maybe it's déjà vu. Do you have a twin sister or brother or something?"

Neji's tongue flicked across his bottom lip as he opened his mouth to answer their question. "I have no siblings. But I have two cousins. You may be thinking of Hinata, maybe?"

"That's it!" the blonde said, nodding. "Hinata Hyuga. She was a sweetie." She blinked once and whipped her hair behind her head. "Oh, by the way, I'm Temari."

"Karin," the redhead introduced herself with a nod.

"Shizune," the dark-haired girl said, and Neji recorded their names and faces into his brain, so he would remember them if he could come in contact with them again on the ship. He knew that he probably would; after all, they were going to be on the same ship for a week.

"Neji," he introduced himself, trying to act as warm as possible, "and this is my mother, Natsumi."

The line in front of them - or behind Neji's back - moved forward again, and he took a step backwards, following the movements of the crowd. The girls proceeded from his lead, moving closer to him and Natsumi.

"Are you ladies here by yourselves?" Natsumi asked them, and Neji knew exactly what she was doing: she wanted her son to try and find a lady to share his heart with. Like that was going to happen. Internally, Neji groaned at his mother's attempts, and he held back the urge to roll his eyes. Yes, while the women were rather pretty, he just wasn't into finding a woman right now. All they could do was hurt him.

"Yeah," Temari answered her. "We had to get away from our busy lives and take a break, y'know? Sometimes, you just need to get away." The breeze blew her wheat tresses back behind her shoulders, exposing a pretty jawline.

"That's why we're here, too," Natsumi said, and Neji wondered when his mother got so talkative lately. He could tell that her mind was set on helping Neji find a girlfriend. She just couldn't accept the fact that he wasn't interested. "This was actually a gift from my son."

"Awe," the girls cooed in unison, and Neji wondered if any of them were going to try and hit on him before the week was out. Natsumi was doing a hell of a job getting them interested, or so it seemed. For some reason, women seemed to love a man who cared about his mother, and it seemed as though Natsumi knew this fact. Her mind was set on finding him a lady. Which meant that Neji had to work twice as hard in finding his mother a man.

"Do you have any special men in your lives?" Natsumi questioned nonchalantly, acting like a young girl again. Maybe this would be a good thing; maybe she would make friends with these young ladies, and perhaps it would help attract men.

"Only Temari," Karin said, placing her hands on her hips and rolling her eyes. "That man is a lazy bum who doesn't care what happens."

Neji turned his attention to Shizune, who watched him the moment she felt his gaze upon her. "Do you happen to know a woman named Tsunade?" he asked, curiously.

A girly grin spread across her face and her eyes lit up. "You know Tsunade?"

"Yeah." Neji nodded. "She works at a bar that I go to." Wow. What a small world it was. He never thought he would find a girl who was good friends with one of his buddies. He would definitely want to talk to Shizune again, because odds are, she lives in the same area as him, and she'd probably be more than happy to go to the bar with him to visit Tsunade and Asuma.

OoO

Tenten stretched her arms out laterally, letting the breeze eradicate all worries and tensions from her body. The salty air around her engulfed her senses, cleansing them from her daily life stresses. This was going to be some kind of trip. She just hoped that the walls were thick enough between the cabins, so that the people neighboring herself and Lee wouldn't become too agitated with their late night and early morning affairs.

Lee had really surprised her, when he told her everything he had done to make this happen; he had gone directly to the Treeline Diner and spoke with her boss, telling him exactly what he was doing. From there, he had also prepared ahead for this day, and had requested Tenten's being off for this coming week. Her boss, Gai, really likes Lee and was thrilled to know that there was a possibility of their becoming engaged, and so he gave her off from this Thursday - today - to next Saturday.

After that, he went to Konoha High and gave them the same pitch. The board of the school was happy for the new couple, and they gave her this week off, too. Lee had supplied them with a backup soccer coach for the off-season practices and open gyms. She didn't know who her substitute was, but she sure hoped that Lee had picked out a good one that wouldn't ruin her reputation.

She turned her attention to her fiancé, who was generous enough to carry both his luggage and her's without complaint. That was one thing about him that she liked; he never complained. Rather, he used every struggle as a way to grow stronger. It must be the mentality of a trainer.

"I can't believe we're going on a cruise," Tenten said with a grin and clutched the hand of her lover before propelling herself up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Lee grinned down back at her and pilfered a kiss from her lips.

"A few more meters and we will be on a cruise," he commented, glancing at the line in front of them, counting the people before them. "It looks like there are only ten more parties ahead of us, Tenten."

Tenten glanced down into the water and almost felt the urge to jump off of the bridge and plummet into the cool harbor. She loved to swim, and didn't care if she plunged in head-first and fully clothed. She guessed that that was why everybody from high school and college called her a tomboy. Despite her urges, she held herself back and returned her gaze to Lee, who shifted the bags that were stacked on his back.

"So what all is on this cruise?" Tenten asked him, brushing her fingers up and down his bare forearm. His muscles bulged as they were worked from carrying all of the bags, but they didn't tremble from fatigue. They were strong.

"What is not on this cruise?" Lee replied back to her. "There are parties every night, and there is endless food at breakfast and dinner. The cabins are supposedly very roomy and high-class-looking. But that may depend on the type of ticket that was bought. We, of course, are not in the first-class rooming section, because neither of us have that kind of money." He blushed a little bit in the cheeks. "I could have gotten us first class, but I spent the majority of the money I had saved on your ring."

Tenten glanced down at the rock that was strapped to her small and strong finger. It glimmered happily within the sunlight, the rainbow reflections bouncing off of its surface and dancing around it majestically. It truly was a beautiful piece of jewelry, and probably the most expensive piece she would ever own. Besides a small necklace and a few studs, she wasn't that all into the hype of jewelry.

"What kind of parties?" she asked him, returning her attention to her dear, who moved forward with the crowd. Tenten took a step towards the entrance of the cruise ship, but never took her gaze off of Lee.

"The kind of parties where everybody gets together on the bow and just has a free-for-all. The music, apparently, blares until the early hours of the morning, and people dance and drink fruity drinks. Of course, the alcohol comes out after one in the morning, when the minors have to return to their cabins. After one, all of the adults drink and dance and go swimming in the pool." Lee grinned. "This is going to be so much fun!"

The line moved forward again, and Tenten glanced to her left at one of the other bridges that people crowded onto. It seemed as if theirs was moving faster than the one that she and Lee were on. Why was that? She took a closer look at the people, examining everything about them, and she came up with the theory that they were above them in social class. Their clothes looked expensive, and it seemed as if their luggage was more extensive. They probably had three outfits for a single day.

Tenten snorted and rolled her eyes. The rich...they think they're so high and mighty, as if money had the power to buy anything that it wanted. She remembered whenever Sakura had told her about this one guy that she had met. He went to one of the private schools in Konoha, and apparently his family had enough money to where they could literally bathe in cash. Sakura had told her that she really liked this guy, but he left after high school and went off to some prestigious university. What was his name? She couldn't remember, but she was able to recall the day he left, because he left poor Sakura in tears.

There was only one wealthy person that she had met who didn't seem to care about her social status. Tenten would never forget this kind and gentle girl who had fallen in love with a blonde boy in Sakura's grade - the year below Tenten's class.

Hinata Hyuga. She was such a caring girl who saw people for who they were, and not for what possessions they had. She was a girl that had fallen in love with a boy who didn't have very much money to his name, and she supported him with everything he did. She always helped him fundraise, and she alone donated so much money to him to help benefit their school.

What was this blonde boy's name again?

"What are you thinking about, Tenten?" Lee asked her, breaking her thoughts abruptly. She shook her head and glanced at him with a smile. She didn't answer him, because she didn't want him to know how she felt about the separation of social classes, how the segregation inflated the heads of the wealthy. Tenten shook off the idea that they were stuck in third class; it didn't matter that they weren't in first class, because they had each other. She was happily engaged, and no amount of money could ever surpass that happiness.

Tenten pecked Lee's jaw quickly to distract him from his unanswered question. Together, they gazed down at the precious rock on her left ring finger. Lee moved one of the bags that was clutched in his hand to his wrist, balancing the suitcase on his strong muscles. He gently grasped Tenten's hand and brought it up to his lips, where he kissed the top of her hand.

"What do you want to do first, when we get on the ship?" he asked her, and she looked up at him through her long eyelashes.

"Drop off these bags," she laughed and began removing some of the luggage from Lee's body, feeling the need to carry her own weight, despite his request to be the man and carry everything. "I doubt either of us want to drag them around the ship when we check everything out."

"Good call," he said, leaning on the edge of the bridge.

The line in front of them dragged their feet only a few inches further, and Lee and Tenten side-stepped closer to the entrance, inching forward and waiting to board. This third-class line was moving very slowly in comparison to the line on the bridge to their left. There were less people in that line, probably because not that many people had that kind of money.

The sun beat down on Tenten's shoulders, and she could almost feel her skin tanning as she waited to get onto the ship. Lee was pretty white, and he didn't tan very easily. However, he could burn to a crisp quicker than the blink of an eye.

"Did you put on sunscreen this morning?" she asked him, hoping that he did. She didn't want him to be sick or in a blistering pain the entire week. That would be a terrible way to spend their engagement celebration trip.

"Yes, I did."

"Good." Tenten sighed and leaned on the bar across from Lee, the tips of her sneakers touching the toes of his athletic shoes. Her eyes watched as he maneuvered his feet around hers, the insides of his feet touching the outsides of hers. While it was just a little gesture, Lee knew that there was a deeper meaning; he would protect her, no matter what. He was the barrier between her and everything, and he would take a bullet for her and destroy anything that threatened her. No matter what it was, he would protect her. She was his, and nobody else's.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter Four_

Tenten tossed her luggage onto the double bed the moment she and Lee stepped foot into their assigned cabin. It was small, but it was doable. She couldn't help but wonder what the first class cabins looked like. They were probably huge. No matter. She didn't really care. She had everything she needed; she had Lee.

They had waited in line for almost an hour and a half, just waiting to board the ship. By this time, they needed a break to sit down, drink a tall glass of water, and use the bathroom. While Lee took the single bathroom in their cabin, Tenten flopped backwards onto the bed, stretching out and staring at the ceiling. While she knew that this cruise was supposed to be - and going to be - a nice time, she didn't like the fact that they separated people by their wealth, or how much money they wanted to invest in their ticket. It was almost a slap in the face to the ordinary people of society.

Oh well. The only difference between the first class ticket and the third class ticket was the room, right? So why did she care so much?

"Pfft," Tenten spit and rolled her eyes cupping her hands behind her head and sighing. "Like I care." She heard Lee in the bathroom, flushing the toilet and immediately jamming the handle of the faucet upwards. The double sources of running water were a little louder than expected, but she could live with it.

She took in a deep breath in through her nose and closed her eyelids for only a minute, but before she knew it, she was out cold. Her body's tension released, and her muscles experienced myoclonic jerks as she drifted downwards through the stages of sleep.

Lee emerged from the bathroom, only to find his fiancé dead asleep on their double bed. He blinked once, wondering how exactly she was able to be knocked out so quickly. She was always the first one to fall asleep, he had noticed when he would sleep over at her place, or she at his. The moment her head hit a pillow, she was down for the count.

Placing his hands on his hips, Lee glanced around the cabin room, looking for something to do. He didn't want to go out without Tenten, because she was the reason why he was here. They were supposed to be spending this time together, but considering the fact that she was asleep, it kind of put their vacation on hold.

Well, since there were going to be parties raging throughout the night, why not catch up on a few hours of sleep?

Lee laid perpendicular on the bed, his abs just barely an inch from the top of Tenten's head. He didn't want to disturb her, so he allowed the majority of his legs to hang off of the side of the bed. Bunching a pillow up, Lee placed it under his head and closed his eyes, hoping to fall asleep as quickly as his lover could.

OoO

Neji and Natsumi walked down the hall with the trio of girls that they had met while standing in line to board the ship. It turns out that their room was almost directly across from theirs, so they would definitely be seeing a lot of each other this next week. He didn't mind; they were nice enough. He just hoped that they wouldn't try to woo him, because they would certainly fail. At least he was safe from one of them; Temari being in a relationship was one less girl that he would have to worry about.

Natsumi, on the other hand, seemed completely determined to find him a girlfriend, or at least a lady to spend some intimate time with. Why she was continuing on her quest, he wasn't sure. However, he wouldn't let her win in this game. He would surely find a man for her before she could find a woman for him. Unofficially, it was on.

"Are you two going to be staying up for the party?" Shizune asked us when she turned to the door of the cabin that she was sharing with her girlfriends. With tiny fingers, she slipped the thin card key into the slot and the light flashed green, granting her access.

"Maybe." Neji shrugged, but Natsumi nodded at her swiftly.

"We may be the first ones there," she commented, and Neji turned his eyes to his mother in concern. Just yesterday, she was still moping around the house, almost depressed that they were going on a trip. But today? It was as if her husband had never died in the first place. If a cruise was the thing that could solve her problem, Neji would have tried this a long time ago.

Shizune held the door open for her two girlfriends, but stayed outside with her foot propping the door. "Let us know when you're heading down," she said before ripping a square post-it note from her duffel bag. She scribbled something down on it and shoved her arm out towards Neji, offering him the slip of paper. As so not to be rude, Neji clamped his index finger and thumb around it and retrieved it, only glancing at the message. It was her cell phone number.

"Okay," Neji replied nonchalantly before turning to his own cabin door and inserting its card key. After it clicked, he glanced back over his shoulder and nodded at Shizune, giving her the okay to enter her own cabin. With a small smile, she did, and when her door latched, Neji let out a sigh. He stepped into his extravagant cabin, leaving his mother to follow him.

"What's the matter, Neji?" Natsumi let the door come closed as she stalked her son into their cabin. Neji tossed their luggage onto one of the beds in the room and glanced out the roof's window, staring at the clouds. He fell backwards onto the bed on the far end of the room, folding his hands behind his head. "Aren't you going to call that girl, Shizune?"

"Mom, calm down," Neji puffed out a breath of air, almost agitated with Natsumi's desperation. "We just left one another; she just gave me the number." But no, he wasn't planning on calling her. He could tell what she wanted, and he just didn't want the same thing. It had nothing to do with anything about her; she was beautiful and she seemed friendly. However, he just wasn't looking for a relationship right now.

Besides, if he did allow something to happen between himself and Shizune, he knew that he would be feeling the rage of Tsunade; that woman would not be happy, and when she's not happy, the world around her was definitely going to feel her wrath. If he allowed any sort of physical activity to come about between himself and Tsunade's friend, he certainly would be seeing the world through two black eyes and a staggering pain in the groin.

Neji shivered at the thought of having her relentless power being drawn into his most sensitive area. Yeah, he could promise that nothing was going to happen with Shizune.

"Why don't you seem interested in them?" Natsumi asked and sat next to him, laying down at his side. He moved over in order to make room for his mother, who made her way onto the bed that he had claimed. "They're pretty girls, Neji, and _they_ seem pretty into _you_."

Neji's sharp eyes traced the contours of the ceiling, noticing every etching of the intricate design that ran across its length.

What was he supposed to say? He wasn't interested in them; that's not like it was his fault. There was no chemistry between them, and he could tell this much. Sure, he didn't mind the idea of hanging out with them while they inhabited the same boat for a week, but he could see the gleam of desire in Shizune's eyes, and that just wasn't happening. Not just because he feared what Tsunade may do to him, but because he wasn't big on the idea of "hitting it and quitting it." Some of the guys at college talked like that, objectifying women as if they were playthings.

"What can I say to you that will make you understand?" he questioned his mother, whose gaze traced the side of his face. "Why are you so set on finding me a girl?"

Natsumi allowed her eyes to leave her son's profile, and turn up to face the same ceiling that he traced. "I just want you to be happy," she confessed. "I don't want you to grow old and bitter like me."

"You're not old, Mom." Neji shook his head. "And I wouldn't say that you're bitter. I think that you're the one who is lonely, and you feel that finding me a lady will bring you some sort of happiness." He turned his eyes to her, and she followed his lead. She was truly a beautiful woman, and she could definitely find a man if she really wanted to. If she _really _wanted to, she could probably have men flinging themselves at her left and right. "Maybe you should find a nice gentlemen to spend some time with."

Natsumi closed her eyes, and Neji watched as a tear washed down the side of her face, soaking into her hair. He could feel the pain that she was experiencing; the thought of his father was like making a deep incision across his chest and ripping it open with his bare hands. It was a terrible thing, to have to recall his father's passing.

_No._ Neji scolded himself and shoved away the thoughts of his father, sealing his agonizing pain back within his mind, back deep into his unconscious brain. He had worked so hard to rid himself of the excruciation that the thoughts of his father caused him.

"I can't replace your father," she murmured, and Neji touched the top of her hand, holding it comfortingly in his own hand.

"I didn't say replace him," he told her sternly. "You can't replace human beings. But that doesn't mean you have to live your life alone and in misery. You deserve to pursue happiness."

"I just feel like it's too soon to move on. I just don't want Hizashi to think that he was easy to get over."

"If I know Dad," Neji said, "then I can promise you that he would want you to do whatever makes you happy. He wouldn't want to see you wasting away lying around in bed." Swiftly, Neji bolted up off of the bed and held his hand out to Natsumi, who stared at it for a moment. "Let's go see what this boat has to offer for our amusement."

OoO

Tenten's eyelids fluttered open, and she wondered how long she had been asleep. Sitting up straight on the bed and fixing her hair, she turned around to see that Lee had fallen asleep at her head, and was still dead as a doornail.

Carefully, as so not to shake the bed and disrupt her lover's sleep, Tenten stood up and wandered towards the door, wondering what exactly was on this massive ship. She grabbed her card key and slipped it into the back of her shorts' pocket before unlocking the door and opening it quietly. It clicked open, but Lee didn't budge. He was a heavy sleeper, and could probably snore his way through a nuclear war.

Tenten smiled to herself and slipped out of the door, holding it as she gently latched it shut. She tapped her pockets to make sure she had her cell phone and her wallet, and when she felt both bulges, she nodded and was on her way down the hallway.

Really, she wasn't sure how people were able to maneuver themselves through these things. This ship was massive, and she felt as though she was already lost after walking a straight line. She found herself under the sun and strolling across the deck. There were more people out than she had expected, having just gotten on the ship and all...

_Oh, wait_, she remembered, and she almost laughed out loud at herself. _I fell asleep. I don't know how long we've been on board._

She fished her cell phone out of her pocket and checked the time. It was almost seven o'clock in the evening, but the sun had yet to begin setting. Tenten moved through the crowd of people, wandering around aimlessly and looking for something amusing. The wind blew her short tresses back as she made her way from the stern to the bow, accidently bumping into other people and genuinely apologizing to them. They returned her amends with kind words.

_Everybody seems so mellow_, she thought as she continued on her quest along the left side of the ship's length. Her hand drifted to the rail, and her eyes dropped down to watch the waves be parted by the large body of the cruise ship. The salty air enriched her senses as she breathed it in, and she immediately felt rejuvenated. Already, she didn't want to go back to work and to real life. She could stay here forever, and she would be completely okay with that.

She glanced at the lifeboats that were strapped to the side of the boat, and she mentally noted their position, just in case. The odds of something happening were slim, but it was always nice to know where the exit was.

Tenten watched all of the people around them, wondering if she knew any of them. It would be nice to know more than one person on this ship, for reasons like this; Lee was still asleep, and she didn't want to be the one to wake him up. But even so, it was still lonely being around all these people who were talking and laughing with one another. Did they know each other from previous days, or had they just met because of this cruise?

Perhaps it was possible to meet some new people. She just had to be in the right place at the right time. Maybe a good place to be was a bar, if they had one out right now. Apparently, the open bar didn't start until after one in the morning when all the minors were supposed to be in their rooms. If that was true, it was quite unfortunate; she could really go for some liquor right now.

Tenten made it, finally, to the bow, where there were more people than there were on the stern. A teenage girl came up to her and threw a green lei around her neck, and it fell across her chest gracefully.

"Thank you," she barely managed to get out as the girl continued onwards, tossing the frilly neck pieces at the guests on the cruise ship. She glanced down at the solid green lei and laughed, realizing that they were probably beginning to get everybody pumped for the party.

Tenten watched as people jumped into the pool at the front of the ship. It was a very care-free environment, which was evident; people were plunging into the water both fully-clothed and in swimsuits. She couldn't help but smile at the excitement that surrounded her in the entirety of the atmosphere. This was going to be fun, she could tell.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tenten caught sight of exactly what she was in search for. To her right, about a hundred feet away, was a shaded bar tended by a young woman with dark hair and a coconut bra. The thought of alcohol instantly gave her nervous system a buzz. It had been so long since she had the free time to drink. At home, she had so much that she had to do, between working at the diner and coaching teenage boys, and there was no time to waste on drinking.

And alcohol games! She missed the days that she had spent with friends when she was in college. Beer pong was highly popular among her and her friends, who were mostly guys. All through school, she had been labeled as one of the guys; it was less drama than hanging out with a bunch of girls. She remembered attempting - and succeeding - the twenty-one shot challenge on her twenty-first birthday. She was pretty sure that the guys who were with her that night had gotten more drunk than she did.

Tenten sat down on one of the stools that were bolted down onto the deck and placed her elbows on the surface of the bar. The lady in the coconut bra turned to her and grinned warmly. Whether it was a genuine smile or a rehearsed one, Tenten wasn't sure.

"What can I get for you, dear?" she asked, and Tenten's eyes flickered to the list of drinks that they served on this boat. There was no hard liquor, and no sign of tequila on the list. It just looked like a bunch of girly drinks. That was unfortunate.

_Well,_ Tenten thought to herself, _I guess I'll just have to drink more to make up for that fact._

"Give me an Elvis' Rum Punch," she said, and the lady got to work right away with my order. Tenten placed her chin in her palm and glanced around at the people around her; right now, she was the only one at the bar. However, she could tell that others had been there before her, because they held their drinks in their hands as they conversed with other people.

She glanced at her phone, which was contained in her left pocket, and she wondered when Lee was going to wake up from his nap. She knew that he would probably call her the moment he drifted back into consciousness, but she couldn't help but miss his presence. After all, they were on this boat to celebrate their engagement.

It was partially her fault, though, because she had initiated nap time. Damn her ability to fall asleep anywhere she could close her eyes. If she hadn't fallen asleep, then they would probably be roaming the boat together, hand in hand, and seeing everything it had in store for them.

"Your rum punch," the lady handed Tenten her pink drink and sent her off with a friendly smile. Tenten exchanged the grin and swiveled around on the barstool, gazing out over the boat and watching the people interact with one another. She took a large gulp of her rum and crinkled her nose; it was nowhere near strong enough. What a bummer.

Tenten pressed her bottom lip to the tall glass of the sorry excuse for alcohol and chugged it. It was just like drinking orange-pineapple juice. Legitimately, she wondered if the lady had actually put any sort of alcohol in this drink at all. This was a slap in the face to alcohol, and should never be categorized in the same class as an actual drink.

Disappointed with the fruit juice, Tenten placed the glass back on the bar, much to the surprise of its creator, and she began moving in the direction of the pool, finishing her self tour of the bow. She wondered how deep it was, and if there were any jets to hang by. The jets that propelled water out of them were the best. It was like getting a massage from thousands of little bubbles.

Tenten paced slowly around the edge of the pool, watching as everybody enjoyed the water. She began losing herself in her thoughts, remembering the last time she had been in a pool. It had to have been her senior year of high school, maybe, at one of Sakura's parties. The memory was very vivid, despite having been five years ago. She remembered playing chicken with everybody, and always ended up being the person on the bottom, acting as one of the guys that held the girls on their shoulders. Her team always won, of course.

Tenten's thoughts were broken as she was bumped and went plummeting on her left side into the pool. It all happened so fast that she didn't really realize what was actually happening until she hit the bottom of the pool with her hip. She couldn't tell if the water was warm or cold, due to the initial shock of suddenly being pushed in unprepared. She had accidentally taken a little bit of water in through her lungs, and immediately used her feet to shoot herself back up to the surface.

The moment her head broke the top of the water, she began choking out for air, and almost vomited as a result of inhaling the chlorinated water. The feeling of half-drowning was disgusting and made her head pound and her stomach churn. Coughing up the water that had invaded her lungs, Tenten threw her hand over her mouth, just in case the contents of her stomach decided to come up with the water.

With rapid eyelids, she blinked the water out of her eyes and saw a hand outstretched towards her. Before taking the hand that was held out for her, she followed it up his arm to his shoulder, and once her eyes set upon his face, she was hypnotized by beautiful gray eyes.

Tenten linked her hand with his and allowed him to yank her out of the water gently. The moment she was back on land, the man with the captivating eyes stared at her, watching to make sure she didn't lose her balance.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, but she was too busy admiring his flawless face. "I'm so sorry." Tenten blinked once and snapped out of her trance, remembering that she was engaged to another man. In a guilty panic, she laughed off the incident and scratched the back of her head.

"No that's fine," she said before shoving her hand out in front of her, feeling like a bumbling idiot. The angelic man before her glanced down at her outstretched hand, dripping with pool water. Her entire body was drenched, which gave birth to a puddle of water at her feet on the deck. "I'm Tenten," she introduced herself and grinned. The man who had accidently knocked her into the swimming pool cracked a smirk on a single side of his face, and he reached one hand out to grab hers.

"Neji," he said, and the two shook hands upon becoming acquainted.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five_

"I'm Tenten," Tenten introduced herself and grinned. The man who had accidently knocked her into the swimming pool cracked a smirk on a single side of his face, and he reached one hand out to grab hers.

"Neji," he said, and the two shook hands upon becoming acquainted. Turning around and stopping one of the workers on the ship, he requested a towel, which was immediately brought to him by a second worker. "Thank you." Neji took the large white towel and handed it to Tenten, who began drying her skin off. Her clothes, though, would never be wrung of all the water that they had absorbed. "I'm so sorry about that," he apologized again, and Tenten smiled at him warmly.

"It's fine," she said, brushing the situation off of her shoulders. "That wasn't the first time I've been pushed into a pool, and it definitely won't be the last." She took the towel though her sopping wet hair and patted the material through her tresses. While she did so, she stepped on the heels of her shoes, one at a time, and slipped her sneakers off.

"Could I get you a drink?" he asked, and Tenten's eyes flickered to his angelic face, then moved over to the bar with the ninety-nine percent juice, one percent alcohol drinks. While she didn't really want to waste her time with more fruit juice, she also didn't necessarily want to say goodbye to Neji yet. Something about him seemed to captivate her.

"Those aren't drinks," Tenten warned him, and he watched her with his head cocked. "Those are breakfast beverages."

The sides of Neji's lips curled up and he shoved both of his hands into the pockets of bark brown shorts. He took a single step forward so that the people around him wouldn't be able to hear him. Tenten's heart jumped when she saw him get close to her, and she didn't realize it immediately, but she stopped breathing.

_Control yourself, Tenten,_ she scolded herself and dug her nails into the palm of her hand. _You're _engaged_ to _Lee_, remember?_ She bit her lip and her eyes watched as his lips moved closer to her ear. Her heart pounded and she could feel her self control dwindling. What was it about this man that made her feel so...turned on?

"I've got Crown Royal and Patron Tequila Silver back in my room," he informed her, and the thought of real alcohol got her excited. Tenten took a deep breath and fingered her engagement ring. She would go enjoy a drink with this man and become friends with him, but she couldn't let herself do anything more.

"Are you hitting on me?" Tenten asked bluntly, and Neji stepped backwards and stared at her with blank eyes. Immediately, there was an awkward moment between them as he was wrapping his head around her impetuous question.

His tongue flicked across his bottom lip and he opened his mouth to give her a reply. "I'm offering you a drink," he said, and she could tell that his offer had no strings attached. She wasn't entirely sure how exactly she knew, but she did. "I mean if you don't want to drink, that's fine." He glanced over at Natsumi, who was in the process of being hit on by a man a little younger than her. A small smile traced up his lips as he realized that she was going to be okay. This trip was good for her.

"I'll drink with you," Tenten said, and Neji returned his attention to her, just staring at her as if he had no idea what she had just said. "I will drink with you," she repeated, and he grinned.

"It's not everyday that you find a woman geared and ready to drink something hard," Neji commented and turned around, his back facing her. He waited there, not taking a single step until she moved to his left side after picking up her drenched sneakers. Tenten took a small leap to cover the distance to Neji's side, and she smiled at him.

"You kidding?" she said with a smirk and followed his lead as he began walking along the length of the boat; the same route that she had taken upon reaching the bow and meeting this man. Neji's wrist was so close to the bar that it almost glided over its smooth surface. The tropical air sent both his hair and Tenten's flowing back behind their shoulders. "You must not live in a very interesting place."

"No," Neji chuckled. "I don't." He turned his eyes towards the setting sun and thought about his boring and lonely life. He had so much money, and he could buy or do anything he wanted, but he wasn't happy. Material things weren't enough to completely content him. "There's only one girl I know who can beat a man in a drinking game."

"Oh really?" Tenten watched as his eyes scoured the sky above them. "Who is she?"

"She's a friend of mine," Neji said. "She works in the bar that I go to. Tsunade is her name, and that woman is beautiful but deadly." Tenten was suddenly saddened by the fact that he was friends with beautiful women; he probably had high expectations for physical appearance, then. "Her temper could probably destroy Konoha itself."

"You live in Konoha?" Tenten asked, wondering if she had ever come in contact with him before and had not realized it. No, if she had met someone this attractive, she probably wouldn't forget him. Neji nodded and turned his pulchritudinous gray eyes towards her. "What part of of town?"

"Northwest of the city's entrance."

_Oh,_ she nodded, realizing why she hadn't met him before. _He's on the rich side of town._

"What about you, Tenten?" he asked her, and she noticed that he sounded genuinely interested in learning more about her. She knew, though, that it wouldn't last. The moment he learned that she wasn't wealthy in the least, he would probably be anxious to get rid of her.

"I live on the east, by the cemetery." She awaited for the scorn to set in, but his facial expression didn't change. Rather, nothing about him changed. He didn't break eye contact with her, which surprised her. Had it been that guy that Sakura had fallen for, she could have forgotten about drinks, because he probably would have stopped the conversation right then and there. But Neji didn't. Rather, he continued to lead her in the direction of his room.

"How is that side of town?" he asked.

"Honestly, I can't really remember. I'm always at the school, coaching the boy's soccer team, or I'm at the Treeline Diner and working excessive hours in order to make money and pay for my rent." Neji turned towards the stairs, which were right by the hallway that led down to her own cabin, and they both ascended them gradually. "It's not that great. Mostly average people with average lives."

"That sounds nice," Neji said, and Tenten raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if she was missing his sarcasm. But he didn't seem to smirk at all, as if he was joking. Rather, his facial expressions remained serious.

"What do you mean?" she asked him, hoping that he could clarify. They reached the acme of the stairs and took a right into the cabins, where he led her down a hallway similar to the one leading to her own room. "I mean, you have money, right? You can do whatever you want."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be, really." His right hand was removed from his pocket as he scratched his chin. "Money buys a lot, but material things don't bring true happiness."

Tenten blinked. "So would you say that you're unhappy?"

Before Neji had even a chance to think about the question, the door across the hall from his cabin opened up, and he ran into Shizune, Karin and Temari. They smiled at him and caused him to stop in his tracks as they halted him to talk to him. They had changed their clothes since the last time he had seen them only a few hours beforehand.

Temari had changed her tank top to a magenta tube top that revealed very little cleavage, which he was thankful for, considering the fact that she had a boyfriend. A little black skirt flowed around her thighs, swishing around with her every movement. Gladiator sandals were strapped to her feet, giving her comfortable and easy movement.

Karin, on the other hand, was showing a little too much skin. Her bold blue bikini top held her breasts up and pushed them together firmly. It was skimpy, and barely covered her; it was as if they were going to fly out of the cloth the moment she began walking again. Her shorts were so tiny, they barely covered the curves of her glutes.

Shizune, too, had on a bikini top, although hers was more fitting to her body. It was brown and had a tropical pink flower on the left breast. The bottoms were visible under the flamingo pink wrap that she had tied around her waist, and the sandals that protected her feet resembled those of a Greek goddess.

"Hey, Neji," Karin said with an attempted - but failed- seductive smile. She placed one of her hands on her exposed hip and balanced her weight on her right foot. "You're going the wrong way, aren't you?"

"I sort of knocked a girl into the pool," he said, glancing over at Tenten, whose clothes were still dripping with chlorinated water. "I'm going to make it up to her."

"Oh," Karin's face dropped as she noticed the presence of another female. She knew that there was a possibility that Tenten would end up changing her clothes in front of Neji, or they could go as far as having a one night stand.

"We'll still see you at the party, right?" Shizune asked, her eyes curious and full of hope. Neji wondered why exactly Karin and Shizune were trying so hard to impress him and to spend time with him. Or did they do that with any guy?

"Maybe," Neji said nonchalantly and shrugged. "There are a lot of people on this boat, so it's probably going to be crowded." He took the few steps further to the door of his cabin and he jammed the card key into its designated slot. When the green light flashed at him, he opened it with a click and allowed Tenten to walk inside in awe. "See you." He closed the door on them and ran his fingers through his long locks.

He walked past Tenten, who stood in the middle of the room and looking around at what she thought was extravagant. To Neji, however, the contents of the room were typical, and some were cheap objects.

"This room is so big," she said, removing her attention from the material things and watched as Neji squatted down to the fridge, yanking out bottles of hard liquor. While he was down on his heels, his cell phone fell out of his pocket, causing her to remember her own phone, that was more than likely fried from its little dip in the pool. That could pose a problem; how was Lee supposed to call her? Ripping her dinky phone from her pocket, Tenten flipped up the top, but no light came on. "Damn," she cursed after attempting to turn it on with no avail.

"What's the matter?" Neji asked as he returned to his feet, preparing their drinks in the bar glasses that he had brought along with him on the trip.

"The water completely destroyed my phone," she said, tossing it aside.

"I'm so sorry," he said, abandoning the drinks and moving over towards her. He picked up her cell phone and tapped the buttons, but there was no way that he would be able to resurrect it. "I'll buy you a new one the moment we set foot on land." He pulled out a pair of athletic shorts and a T-shirt and handed them to Tenten. "Did you need to call someone?"

"My fiancé," she told him, accepting the change of clothes. "He was asleep whenever I left him, and I was waiting for him to call me when he woke up."

_Fiancé?_ Neji's eyebrows pulled together and his eyes flickered to her left hand, and indeed took notice to the dazzling rock on her finger. For some reason or another, he felt upset by this fact. She was getting married.

"Do you want to call him from my phone?" While he was hoping that she would say no, he knew that she would probably want to let her lover know where she was at, and that she was okay.

"That's fine," Tenten said. "I'll call him after I change."

"Okay." Neji reluctantly picked his phone up from off of the floor and set it on Natsumi's bed, then turned around and continued to work with their drinks. Tenten, not feeling at all shy around the man she had just met, began peeling her clothes off of her skin and throwing them onto the hardwood floors. Her undergarments were completely soaked through, and so she got rid of those, tossing them with her shorts and tank top. She replaced her clothes with the ones that Neji had given to her, and she wondered if he would want them back. After all, under his clothes, she was completely naked.

Tenten abandoned her clothes and picked up Neji's cell phone before moving around to the counter, where multiple glasses of liquor awaited her. She pounded in the numbers of Lee's cell phone and pressed the touch phone to her ear. The phone barely had enough time to finish two rings before Lee's panicked voice answered.

"Hello?" he said, and she could tell that he had been awake for a while, which meant that he had been trying to call her on her phone that no longer worked.

"Lee, it's me," Tenten said, tracing her fingers around the edge of a drinking glass. Automatically, she could feel the tension building between them as he let out an overly large sigh.

"Tenten! Where are you?!"

"Relax, it's okay," she told him in a soft tone, glancing up at Neji, who watched her with soft eyes. "There was a little mishap, and I fell into the pool. It completely fried my phone, and I'm with a man named Neji."

"Who the hell is Neji?" Lee's voice sounded almost agitated by the fact that she was with another man. Was jealousy starting to swarm him? If so, it wasn't very becoming of him.

"He's from the west side of Konoha," she explained. "He gave me dry clothes, and now we're going to have a drink."

"Tenten, please don't drink with another man," Lee begged. "Especially one that you don't know. He could pull a fast one on you."

"Relax, Lee." Tenten rolled her eyes and put her elbows on the surface of the counter. Neji snickered silently at the face of annoyance that formed on her face. She grasped the wet, stringy hair on the side of her head and listened to Lee go on and on with concern for her. She had never heard him act like this, even though he knew that all of her drinking buddies were men. He was well aware that she was used to hard liquor and the company of guys, and he had never really had a problem with it before. Hell, he used to be one of her drinking buddies whenever they became friends in college. He was there on her twenty-first birthday, and he was one of the ones who had gotten themselves more intoxicated than she did. Then again, he wasn't a very fun drinker; he could get drunk off of a single vodka.

Neji waited patiently while Tenten attempted to calm her future husband, telling him that everything was going to be okay. He was a little down; coming to the knowledge that Tenten was already taken by another man was kind of disappointing. She was perfect in his eyes; she wasn't a girly girl, she seemed down to earth, and she was a woman who loved to drink.

"Lee, I will meet you down at the party. Until then, look around at everything; it's pretty fun," she said, trying so hard to convince him that she would be okay up here. She needed him to trust her, because that was the thing that was going to get them through their marriage; trust. "I'll be okay, I promise."

From an outer ear attempting to eavesdrop on the conversation, Neji took instant notice to the fact that Lee had told Tenten that he loved her, but she was quick to hang up. What was going on there?

Tenten glanced down at the screen of Neji's cell phone and took notice to the new text message. The sender's name caught her eye, and she looked at the man sitting across the counter from her.

"You know Hinata Hyuga?" she asked, and he raised his eyebrow at her.

"Yeah. Hinata is my cousin."

"I remember meeting her," Tenten said, reminiscing. "She was the sweetest girl on the planet. She was always concerned for the well-being of her true love, and did everything in her power to make sure he was okay."

"It's a small world, though, isn't it?" Neji said, picking up one of the glasses in front of them, and Tenten repeated his action, choosing one at random, not knowing what it was.

"I could drink to that." She grinned, and she and Neji clinked their glasses together before taking a large gulp of the mystery alcohol. By the harsh taste and cruel feeling of it grinding down her throat, Tenten deduced that she had gotten the tequila. "So tell me about yourself, Neji. Let's start with this: what brings you on this cruise?"

Neji sighed, knowing that he was going to tell her the story of his father, despite the fact that he hadn't spoken it to anybody. Now, all of a sudden, he was going to tell a girl who was practically a complete stranger. To prepare himself, he gulped down about three fourths of his Crown Royal.

"I'm here because I needed to find a way to get my mother out of the house," he began, working backwards in his story. "She had been diagnosed with manic depression, and her symptoms were taking a toll on both her life and my own. She wouldn't get out of bed, would barely talk to me. One of my buddies suggested this cruise to help get her out, and I was surprised that she agreed to come with me.

"My mother, Natsumi, had not always been a depressed individual. Formerly, she had been a woman who had succeeded in life and was living it the way she wanted to. She was a doctor in Ancient Greek History, she had a husband who she was madly in love with, and they created a son together. Their lives were happily spent together.

"However, tragedy struck our family last year. My father, Hizashi, was a doctor in nuclear chemistry, and had gone to give a lecture at a university. Unfortunately, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. That day, one of the students had gone berserk and open-fired on the lecture hall that my father was in. That student ended up taking the life of Hizashi and of other students who had attended the lecture that day. According to the police report, the shooter had taken the weapon to his own head, and had taken his life after everybody in the room was dead.

"My mother and I were devastated, and my mother was later diagnosed with manic depression." Neji took a deep breath upon concluding his story, and gazed into Tenten's aghast eyes. She was dumbfounded, at a loss for words. She had no idea that something that terrible would lead someone to this moment right here, and she didn't know what to do or say. Simply, she sat there, her hands shaking.

"Neji, I..." She shook her head, biting the insides of her cheeks. "I don't know what to say."

"It's okay." He nodded. "You don't have to say anything. Nobody could ever say anything that would bring my father back to my mother and me. I've accepted the fact that he's not coming back. That's just how life goes."

"I'm so sorry," Tenten whispered and polished off the remaining tequila in her glass. Neji did the same, and they both reached for a second cup.

The hours passed on, and Neji and Tenten continued to talk, their conversations becoming much more lighter than the story of Hizashi's murder. They discussed everything and anything they could think about, and as more and more alcohol infected their bodies, their stories seemed to become more and more crazy; however, they were all true.

Tenten never did go down to the party to meet Lee, like she said she would. Rather, she could feel herself growing more and more fond of Neji Hyuga. It was as if she had known this man her entire life, and she wondered why she hadn't met him beforehand. This was a kind and gentle man who didn't care about money or social status. Rather, he looked at people deeper than that, searching their heart and soul for the person that they really were.

As the night progressed, Neji could feel himself falling hard for Tenten. He had never had a crush before in his life, and so never knew what if felt like. However, right here and right now, he was falling in love with an engaged woman, and he didn't know how to stop these feelings from surfacing.

He didn't dare let her know that he was falling head over heels for her, though. She would probably leave right away.

The rest of the night was becoming a blur as the bottles of Crown and tequila experienced a drought, and soon enough, their consciousness crashed hard. Both Neji and Tenten - two experienced drinkers - were down for the count.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six_

Neji's sweet dreams were broken the moment he heard his cell phone ringing obnoxiously from on the counter. His eyes fluttered open, only to be invaded by the harsh rays of light that peeked in through the windows at various points in the room. From at his stomach, he felt the bed move, and glanced down to see Tenten gradually waking to the disturbance in the room.

He didn't know when they had quit drinking and had moved to his bed, but both of the bottles that sat on the counter were completely dry, and the cups were scattered across the flat surface. They had polished off both the tequila and the Crown Royal, which meant that they had consumed enough alcohol to probably kill them.

There was a peaceful moment of relaxation before something hit Tenten alongside of her head. She had told Lee that she would meet him down at the party last night, and she and Neji had never left the room since yesterday evening.

"Shit!" She lept from the bed, causing Neji to jump at her belated reaction to the phone. Tenten knew that she should have been rattled with guilt, however that guilt hadn't even penetrated the barrier of her skin. Perhaps that was the alcohol's doing, but even still. She knew that she didn't feel it, and didn't know how exactly she was supposed to make herself feel that way. Her hands strangled Neji's cell phone, which continued to vibrate in an angered manner. The number that stained the screen was the number belonging to her fiancé. She touched the part of the screen that would connect her to her lover and pressed the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Tenten?!" Lee shouted, this time not exactly in a panic. No, rather, at this moment, he was engulfed in a fiery rage for being stood up by the woman who was going to be his wife. "I would say, 'please do not tell me you are still with that man,' but judging by the fact that you are answering his phone, that answers my question." Before Tenten could get a word out of her mouth to tell her side of the story, Lee continued. "What the hell, Tenten?"

"Lee, I'm sorry," she said, but she didn't feel it. Those words were like a shell with no insides, and she couldn't seem to figure out why. She was well aware that she had completely stood him up, but for one reason or another, she didn't feel particularly bad about it. "We were drinking, and-"

"Tenten, if you tell me that you had sex with that man, I swear-"

"We didn't have sex!" Tenten shouted, awakening Natsumi, who had come in in the middle of the night and crashed on her own bed. Neji turned his eyes to her and smiled warmly at his mother, who looked like she was enjoying herself. It was only the second day, but it seemed as if the vacation was doing her mind and body good. "Why do you have to jump to conclusions, Lee?! We talked, Lee. We just talked until the alcohol knocked us out."

Neji almost felt the urge to say something just loud enough that Lee would hear it. Something along the lines of coming close to Tenten and thanking her for last night, perhaps? He had not met the man that Tenten was engaged to, but he already didn't like him. The only thing that stopped him from provoking the other man was the fact that he didn't want Tenten getting mad at him.

"Lee, I will talk to you later," she said through a clenched jaw and gritted teeth. Her anger caused her eyebrows to pull together and form a vertical line where her forehead met the bridge of her nose.

"Why will you not come back now?" he asked, almost in a taunting voice.

"Because I'm mad at you!" she shouted and hung up the phone, placing it back on the counter. She took notice to the fact that Neji's phone had had twenty one missed calls through the night. How did neither one of them hear the phone blaring? They must have really been wasted. Tenten turned her attention back to Neji, who had himself propped up on a single elbow on his bed. "I should have just told him that we fucked each others brains out."

Neji snickered and watched her as she collapsed back onto his bed. "Why would you want to do that?" he asked her. "You _are_ in love with him, aren't you?"

Tenten cupped her hands together and held the back of her head with them, gazing up through the window on the ceiling. "Yeah, I am."

_I think I am_. Her eyebrows curled as thoughts of doubt began to poison her brain. She had never once felt as though there was another man out there for her, besides Lee. It was crazy. How could their entire relationship be jeopardized by their engagement celebration trip? If Lee hadn't been so set on this cruise, then she wouldn't have met Neji, and she and Lee would have gotten married.

But now? It wasn't like she was blaming Neji or anything; it wasn't his fault. He just happened to be beautiful and perfect and everything she had ever dreamed a man to be. Before, she had believed that perfection didn't exist, and she just had to love a man and his flaws, which is what she did with Lee. She looked past his impurities and saw a man.

But Neji...he had spilled his entire heart and soul out to her last night, and she felt as though she had known him for so long. He was perfect, and she was regretting her quick decision in agreeing to marry Lee. Something in her heart yearned for the man that laid before her. She wanted the beautiful angel that she had somehow fallen for throughout the night.

"You don't seem too certain on that," Neji said softly, wanting so badly to reach out and touch her, but restrained his urges. "I mean, you're marrying this guy, right? If you're having second thoughts now..."

"What's wrong with me, Neji?" she asked him, feeling a pain in her chest - not for her own sake, but for the idea of Lee being abandoned. "I thought I loved him. But I met you yesterday, and I'm just...I'm not sure anymore."

Neji could have jumped for joy at the fact that she was falling for him, because for him, there was no going back. He had fallen into the deepest abyss of love for her. She was everything he had ever wanted. She was the manifestation of perfection.

"I don't want Lee to have to play a game of 'she loves me, she loves me not,'" she confessed, her eyes watching the ceiling closely. She knew how that had been, firsthand. That guy that had completely broken her heart in college had strung her along for so long, making her believe that he was in love with her. It wasn't exactly like that with Lee, though. She did love him, but she wasn't entirely sure if she still did.

She felt strange, falling in love with another man in less than twenty four hours. But how could she not fall for him, when he was everything she had ever wished for. When she was a teenager, he was her knight in shining armor. While she hadn't known his name or his face, she knew who he was. From talking to him all last night, she came to the realization that it had been him who had always been under the masked helmet.

It had always been Neji Hyuga.

Before, she was set in discarding her selfishness of wanting perfection, and had prepared to abandon her dream of her beautiful knight. She was ready to settle with Lee, and she had had no second thoughts about that, not until now, at least.

"What do I do?"

Neji watched as her face scrunched, and he was almost certain that she was going to cry. But she didn't, and he was almost sad that she didn't; had she cried, it would have given him an excuse to touch her, and to hold her close to his own body. Yes, he was selfish, and he wanted her. However, her fret hit him right where it hurt and practically knocked the wind out of him.

What was he supposed to say to her? Up until last night, he didn't believe in love at first sight; he didn't even believe in love at all.

But Tenten...she had really burrowed herself deep into his heart, and he wasn't entirely sure how. He had always kept his barriers hard and high, and she had broken through him as if it were nothing. She was perfect. She was the one.

What the hell was he supposed to say? He had never fallen for a woman before, and never expected that he would collapse for an engaged lady. He was struggling to find an answer to her question, due to lack of experience. What was she supposed to do?

_What am I supposed to say?_

Taking notice to her son's conflict, Natsumi decided that she may want to chime in to this conversation. Perhaps she could give helpful advice, being a woman herself, and previously married.

"I would strongly recommend that you talk to him," she spoke up, and both Tenten and Neji turned their eyes to her. "If you have truly realized that your fiancé is not the man for you, you have to let him know. It might hurt both of you, but you can't go through with lying and pretend forever."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Tenten murmured, pursing her lips. "Then what am I supposed to do? The whole reason we're on this boat is because we were celebrating our engagement."

Natsumi let a breath out of her lips. "That's rough," she said, "but the heart wants what the heart wants."

It was silent for a moment, and Tenten sat up on Neji's bed before pushing herself to her feet and stretching. She knew that she had to let Lee know that she couldn't marry him; not now. It wasn't his fault. But, damn, it would be awkward. They would have to see one another for the next six days.

Neji quickly brought himself to his feet, and the swift movement in her peripherals caused Tenten to glance at him. His moonlight gray eyes watched her carefully, and she knew that she had to break it off with Lee. She wanted this man that stood before her. She wanted Neji.

"If things don't end well, you can come back here, okay?" he told her, and she nodded.

"Thank you," she said with a forced smile and turned away from him. She knew what she had to do. Tenten stopped at the closed door for a moment and took a deep breath, glancing at the ring on her finger. She had spent many good times with Lee, and she would never forget them. However, this was the end for them. Their relationship had run its course, and everything good must come to an end. Better to end it now than to keep him latched on and hoping that she would change her mind.

She opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, feeling the stares of Neji and Natsumi on her back as she closed the door. How was she going to tell Lee that she didn't want to get married? He wasn't going to take it very well, and he would probably try to fight for her, but Tenten didn't want to get Neji involved in this. Lee was very strong, and he looked stronger than Neji; she didn't want him getting hurt because of her.

Tenten was met by that dark haired girl that had talked to Neji yesterday evening, and she glanced between Tenten and Neji's room suspiciously. Tenten blinked and stared at her for a moment or so before she spoke up.

"Hello?" she said, and Shizune's eyebrows pulled together. She didn't say anything immediately, but continued to look Tenten up and down, seeing her in the clothes that Neji had lent her. However, in Shizune's eyes, all she saw was competition that had stayed with Neji all night and was wearing different clothes from before. "Can I help you?"

"What is he to you?" Shizune said snidely, sticking her nose up into the air. Tenten's eyes shifted to the right as she tried to think about what the girl before her meant.

_He's an angel. He's perfection._

Like she was going to say that to a Neji Hyuga fangirl. She knew just how catty women could be whenever they felt threatened by another woman on "her" man. The only exception was the fact that Neji didn't belong to Shizune, and he wasn't looking for anything with the three girls that were currently rooming across the hall from his cabin.

That was something she remembered him saying last night, that he knew the redhead and the dark-haired girl across the hall were hitting on him hard, but he wasn't interested. Too bad they didn't get the notification.

"He's a person," Tenten said simply, not going too much in depth of how she truly thought of Neji. It was easier this way; she didn't want a fight. Tenten turned back down the hall and began walking in the direction that she had allowed Neji to lead her yesterday evening. She could feel Shizune's hard eyes on her as she distanced herself from the jealous girl, but it didn't really bother her. This was the reason why she had more guy friends than girls all through high school and college. It was ninety-nine percent less drama to have to deal with.

The moment Tenten stepped out onto the top part of the ship, the sun shone brutally in her eyes, causing a panging pain inside of her brain. Yeah, there are the damn hangover symptoms. That was the downside to drinking, yet she never really learned from the migraines. She continued to drink and party it up, because she was well aware that one day, she would be too old to do such things. Party while you're young, sleep while you're old.

Carefully, Tenten made her way down the wooden stairs and placed her feet onto the wooden planks of the main deck. There weren't as many people as there had been yesterday evening; they were all probably asleep, tired and intoxicated from the party last night - _if_ they could get drunk off of those fruity little drinks.

Lucky for her, though. There were less people to have to stumble through and worry about getting knocked overboard. She turned towards the stern and dragged her bare feet until she could find the hallway that led to the room that she was supposed to be sharing with her fiancé. That hall seemed much darker than she remembered it being yesterday, and now that she was back in it, it was much duller than the one above it in first class.

Tenten reasoned her way through her words, attempting to find the easiest way to let Lee know how exactly she was feeling about the situation. She was certain about two things: she didn't want to get married, and she wanted to be with her knight in shining armor. There was no getting around it; she had quickly found that Neji was the man of her dreams that she had been waiting for ever since she was a teenager and daydreaming about her perfect man. She couldn't possibly go through with marrying Lee when, now, she knew that her perfect man existed.

Tenten reached the door of her cabin, the only physical barrier blocking her and Lee. She took a breath and reached back to grab her card key, only to realize that it was still in the back pocket of her own shorts, laying on Neji's cabin floor.

_Well that's a damn shame._

Somehow, she brought herself to knock on the door, and she heard something tip over inside the room. Her eyebrows furrowed as she waited for Lee to open up the locked door. He was certainly taking his grand old time with it, though. If he took any longer, Tenten was sure she would grow angry and walk away. Had she not heard his footsteps growing closer and closer to the door, she would have.

The door flung open, swinging away from her face, and her fiancé stood before her, holding one of those weak, girly drinks from the bar. He was a mess, and she could tell that what little alcohol that was in that drink had messed with his brain.

"Lee, are you drunk?!" she asked, and he just gaped at her as if she were a long lost lover, finally returning to him. She didn't like that look, because it was going to make it difficult for her to tell him what she needed to.

"Tenten!" he shouted, his pronounced letters running together as if someone had thrown them into a blender and set it on high. "Where is this Neji person you speak of?!"

"That's none of your business." She took the lime green drink from his hands and set it down on one of the tables right inside the door. Placing both hands on his shoulders, Tenten maneuvered Lee backwards and forced him down onto the bed. There was no way that she could talk to him about something so serious while he was so drunk. How the hell do you get drunk off of _that_?

Lee was struggling against her, and she had to use some force in order to pin his shoulder down on the wrinkled sheets. He was a strong man with well-developed muscles - he was a personal fitness trainer, for heaven's sake! - and he was far stronger than she was. Tenten was forced to throw her knees around his waist, in order to dominate over his power. The moment their eyes met, Lee quit his endeavors, and a single tear rolled down the side of his face.

"Please do not leave me, Tenten," he murmured, almost begging, and Tenten felt some sort of pain stab through her torso. She wasn't entirely sure what kind of pain it was, but she felt it, and she just stared down at Lee for so long. His countenance appeared so...disconsolate. It was as if she was his entire heart, and he knew that if she left him, she would tear his heart out of his chest and take it with her as a memento of their time together.

_I'm so sorry, Lee._

There was no possible way that she could do it now; now while he was intoxicated to this extent. He wouldn't be able to grasp the concept of what she was saying, and he would definitely become over-emotional, which would hinder her purpose. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't get married to Lee.

"Go to sleep, Lee," she whispered to him and removed herself from on top of his firm body. "We'll talk after you sleep off the alcohol." Tenten turned to her own suitcase and lowered herself onto her knees, unzipping it and fingering through the clothes she had packed. From inside, she tore out a red and blue plaid button down shirt and a pair of black cutoff shorts. Luckily, she had packed an extra pair of sneakers, and ripped them from the bottom of the bag with a pair of white ankle socks.

For some reason, despite the fact that Lee had seen her naked multiple times, she didn't feel comfortable changing around him right now. She moved into the bathroom and shut the door, locking it firmly before sliding Neji's shorts down her thighs.

The glimmering face of her diamond ring glistened across her vision, and she sighed. She couldn't take it off - not until she sat down with Lee and told him exactly what she wanted. This ring had to go directly from her finger to his hands. If he found it just laying around before she got the chance to talk to him, he may suspect that she cheated on him, which she could never do, not even with Neji. Things had to be made right before she pursued her happiness with her knight.

Tenten pulled up her shorts without putting on undergarments, and did the same with her shirt. She buttoned it up to where people couldn't look down and see her bare breasts. Undergarments were a waste of clothing, and she didn't care for them one bit. Lowering herself to sit on the floor, Tenten yanked on her socks and forced her shoes to devour her feet before lacing their mouths shut tight around them.

The moment she was dressed, Tenten grabbed the clothes that belonged to Neji and opened the bathroom door, walking out to find that what little alcohol had been in his drink had knocked him out. In order not to wake him, Tenten tiptoed to her suitcase and threw in the borrowed articles of clothing in exchange for her paddle hair brush. Taking it firmly in her hand, she combed through the knots that her hair had tied itself into from the pool water and the wind and sleep.

It didn't take long - thank God for short hair - and she piled it all on the top of her head and bound it together with a stretchy hair tie. Without bothering to take a single glance in the mirror, Tenten silently left the room, leaving Lee dead asleep on the bed that they were supposed to be sharing this week. Like a mime, she shut the door inaudibly, allowing it to latch before turning and exiting the hallway.

Unconsciously, she made a beeline for the stern, where she marched to the guardrails and glanced over the edge at the water a hundred or so feet below her. With a sigh, Tenten leaned her elbows on the bar and gazed out over the morning horizon, again, wondering exactly how she was going to tell Lee her decision. It wasn't going to be easy, but she had to.

_"It's rough,"_ she heard Natsumi's voice ring inside of her brain, knowing that the woman was right, _"but the heart wants what the heart wants."_


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter Seven_

Neji paced around his cabin with his fingers clawing at his lips. His concern for Tenten was becoming too great; she had been gone for an hour and a half, and his nerves had been causing his body to tremble the entire time. He couldn't help but feel like this was his fault, despite the fact that she seemed to want him just as much as he desired her. It felt so wrong to be in love with her, especially after such a short time of knowing her. But she was the embodiment of perfection, and he would never meet another woman like her ever again.

If she wanted to stay with her fiancé, then he would leave her alone with no questions asked; Lee had gotten to her first, and that was something he would have accepted. However, Tenten's feelings for him were faltering, and she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to do about it.

"I broke up an engaged couple," he said, and Natsumi's eyes flickered to him as she walked out of the bathroom with her brush in her hair. "What kind of monster does that?"

"If the couple was so easily broken up," she said, tossing her lengthy black locks over her shoulder and tugged the brush through the tired strands, "then that means that it would have happened eventually. It's better to break up now before they seal the marriage and end up filing for divorce."

Neji bit his fingertips, worry for the perfection that he had come in contact with. Somebody had already claimed the embodied angel, and he had been too late. However, because he came along, that other guy was going to have to suffer. Tenten, too, was probably feeling like a wreck, herself. This person - whoever he was - had proposed to her and she had agreed to marry him. He took her on this trip in order to celebrate that future marriage. But she was going to break it off with him now. That guy - Lee, was his name? - was going to think that this was all his fault, and believe that he was the reason why he lost his fiancé to another man. _He_ was the one who booked this trip. _He_ was the one who indirectly caused Tenten to meet Neji, and so _he_ was the one at fault for the breakup.

Tenten fell in love with Neji. Neji fell head over heels for Tenten. Neither one of them had expected to find such a deep and passionate affection for another person on this boat. It was just as shocking to them as it will be to Lee.

"Like I told Tenten:" Natsumi's voice spoke up and blocked Neji's thoughts from entering his brain, "the heart wants what the heart wants." Neji blinked and stared at his mother as she set her paddle brush back into her cosmetic bag. She tossed her tresses back over her shoulders and met her son's gaze. "Sweetie, I've never seen you like this."

"Like what?" Neji's eyebrows tugged closer and closer together and he folded his arms. He wasn't acting any differently than normal, right?

"Worried," she said simply. "I've never once seen you so concerned about a girl, especially not a girl you just met. I mean, look at those beautiful women across the hall that are just waiting for you to come over and drop your drawers." Neji blushed and bit his lip. This was like having the talk. "You didn't give them the time of day, no matter what they said, what they did, or how much skin they showed. But instead, you're dropping to your hands and knees for a girl who is practically a man in a woman's body."

"That's not true," Neji retorted snidely. "She's just not an average girl; she's unique."

"But you love her," Natsumi murmured, almost feeling sorry that her son had fallen for a girl that was difficult to get. However, her unavailability would surely test the strength of his feelings for her. If he wanted her so badly, he would stop at no obstacle to have her.

"I know." Neji sighed and slipped on his athletic sneakers and started for the door. The anxiety involving Tenten's safety and emotional stability was killing him, and he had to get out of this room. Hopefully, he would run into her along the way, and the deed would be done; Lee would be out of their hair, and they could fall in love over and over again.

Natsumi didn't say a word as her son dragged the door of their cabin open, allowing sounds in the hallway to penetrate the room. It slammed shut, and he was gone.

Neji shoved his hands into his pockets and began dragging his feet down the wooden boards of the hallway. The tropical breeze invaded the sheltered hall and engulfed him in its serenity, in desperate attempt to calm his nerves down. He didn't know what was going on with his body; he had never once been so worried about someone in his entire life - not even Natsumi. This was strange to him, and the emotions were completely foreign. Somehow, though, he would move past it, and he and Tenten could be together.

It was love at first sight.

Neji chuckled to himself and slapped his hand across his face, trying to regain his mental strength. Somehow, some way, Tenten had dug herself into him and created a massive weak spot. Anybody could hurt him now, if they so wanted to. All they had to do was get to her. It was like wearing his heart on his sleeve for anyone and everyone to see. It was almost terrifying.

Neji's feet touched the top of the wooden stairs, and his eyes caught sight of a beautiful maiden standing in the breeze. Her short, chocolate tresses were bound tight into a single bun at the back of her crown. Her back was covered by a plaid shirt, but the slight wind drew it up around her waist and whipped it around her hips. All of the curves that made up her legs were exposed, due to the short length of her torn charcoal shorts.

His heart skipped a beat as he took his first step towards her, touching his toe down on one of the first stairs. She looked so majestic, leaning on the guardrail. It was almost as if she could leap off and soar through the skies like an eagle. He could see nothing but her; the rest of his senses were cut off, but not deprived. If he could see her for the rest of his life, then he wouldn't need his other senses. But then...he would never get the chance to smell her, or to taste her; to touch her, or to hear her sweet voice.

Neji's feet touched the base of the stairs, but she didn't seem to notice his presence; she didn't turn around to face him, but rather, continued to gaze out into the blue horizon. He kept his hands in his pockets as he made his way over to her, his sneakers tapping the floorboards almost inaudibly.

When he got close enough, she spoke.

"I couldn't do it," she told him, but she didn't turn her body around to face him. Neji continued to come closer to her, but instead of wrapping her in an embrace, he moved to her right side and copied her movements; he leaned on the guardrail and watched the ocean waves ripple along the surface. "He's drunk as hell. I had to pin him down onto the bed just to get him to to stop yelling." She heaved a heavy sigh. "Then he begged me not to leave him. But I have to."

"You don't have to do anything," he said, attempting to give her a choice. She could stay with Lee, and he would leave her alone. Or she had to break it off with her fiancé so that the two of them could be together.

"That's where you're wrong." Tenten's mocha eyes turned to him and scanned his profile, before he allowed his gaze to slip to her face. For a moment, they stood there, staring at one another with such a desire, it was almost impossible to keep their composure. "Because if I stay with Lee, then I'm always going to be thinking about you, Neji. It sounds melodramatic, but you're my knight in shining armor. You're the man that I've been dreaming of my entire life. And here you are, in flesh and blood. How can I let you slip through my fingers, now that I know you exist?"

Neji shrugged; this was certainly a sticky situation that neither of them had planned, and so neither one of them had any thoughts on where to go from here. Thinking about the situation, perhaps Lee purposely intoxicated himself, so that he would gain Tenten's sympathy. He knew that that would prevent her from breaking it off with him.

He was cowardly. He couldn't face the truth of the matter. His lover - his fiancé - was going to leave him, and he was going to guilt her into staying with him. Well he couldn't stay drunk forever, could he? He would have to wake up and smell the coffee.

"What if I talk to him?" he suggested, and Tenten's eyes widened. Her face twisted into a grimace of disagreement towards his idea. It was almost as if she didn't want any contact between himself and her stubborn fiancé.

"I'm not getting you involved," she said sternly, her eyes glued to his and holding him within their captivating rays of beauty. Tenten nibbled on her bottom lip and shook her head, breaking her hold on him by turning her eyes back to the ocean. "The last thing I want is for you to get hurt."

Neji snickered. "Isn't that supposed to be my line?"

"I'm being serious, Neji."

"I can take care of myself, Tenten. I've been in my share of fights throughout my life, and I can take a punch, if he really wants to throw one at me."

Tenten whipped her head back and forth again, the bun on top of her head wobbling back and forth. "Even still. You have to remember: we're on a boat in the middle of the ocean. He could easily push you over the rail and say you leaned over too far."

"That would be a terrible lie," he said, mocking the confrontation between himself and Lee. Really, he didn't know what Tenten was so worried about. If Neji had the chance to talk to Lee, it may take some of the stress off of Tenten.

"I have to give him back the ring," she murmured, her attention becoming attracted to the diamond that sat in place on her left ring finger. Lee wasn't going to take the news of her decision very well, and she knew that, but it had to be done. It wouldn't be fair to him; if every time he kissed her, or every time he touched her, or any single moment when he would have her, she would be thinking of Neji. His presence would always be there, for as long as he was out there and walking the earth, he would be jammed into her mind. If she didn't do it, she would be filled with so many 'what if's.' What if Lee really isn't the one that she is supposed to be with forever? What if there is someone out there looking for her perfect match - and her idea of perfection is Lee? Tenten would be stealing that girl's knight.

There was no getting around it; it had to be done, and the deed had to be done as soon as possible. She couldn't keep stringing Lee along like this - one day was already enough. It wasn't fair to him if she started something with Neji without breaking off their relationship first. Morally, even, it wouldn't be right.

She wanted Neji, and she wanted his lips to caress every inch of her body. But she couldn't allow that to happen while she was still engaged to Lee.

"I just don't know what to tell him," Tenten spun around in a one eighty, her eyes turning to the ocean of clouds above her head. She leaned her tailbone on the rail and clenched it in between her fingers.

"Tell him the truth." Neji bent over the rail, resting his elbows on it and folding his hands together over the edge of the ship.

"Well of course I'm going to tell him the truth," she snickered. "What else was I going to tell him? That I was getting deported to some far-off land that nobody has ever heard of?"

"I'd go with you," Neji murmured, and Tenten blinked twice, turning her gaze towards him. His long tresses flowed freely in the breeze, falling around his face beautifully. No, beautiful would almost be insulting. He hesitated for a moment before turning his majestic moons to face her. "Woman, I will follow you to the ends of the earth."

At that, Tenten melted. She almost lost complete control of herself, and she could have bent over and pressed a loving kiss to his lips. She could have taken his back to his cabin, where she would allow him to unbutton her shirt and see that there was nothing under it. They would have made one another their partner, their lover, their everything.

But that thought, she had to keep bottled up inside of her until she had the chance to properly break things off with Lee.

"Then I hope I would be able to lead you to paradise."

OoO

Tenten stepped into her own cabin, where Lee was still sound asleep on the single bed. She wanted to tell him everything that she needed to tell him before the second night's party, but it looks like that wasn't about to happen. She wanted to spend the evening with Neji, dancing to the music and kissing under the moonlight.

But he was still asleep, so she couldn't do that - kissing, at least.

Tenten sighed and glanced at the clock on the wall, wishing that he wouldn't have gotten himself wasted off of those fruity little drinks that the staff was passing off as alcohol. It was almost immature of him, if her hypothesis had been correct in the fact that he had done it on purpose to postpone her leaving him. Honestly, they were both supposed to be mature adults - they were twenty three, for heaven's sake.

Tenten tore her hair out of its bun and allowed her luscious wig to flow down upon her shoulders. For the party, she wanted to wear a tank top, just so she wouldn't get warm while the carousing raved on and on until the wee hours of the night. Plus, she wanted something that wouldn't hold as much water as the button-down shirt she currently wore would. Just in case she got pushed into the pool again.

Tenten fingered the buttons that lined down the center of her chest, unbuttoning them one by one and tearing the shirt off of her shoulders. Quickly, she bent down and grabbed a white bra and slung it around her deltoids, clipping it tightly in the back. On top of that, she threw on her favorite white beater, tugging it down to her hips. Her shorts and sneakers were fine for tonight.

Tenten made her way back to the door, turning around slightly before allowing herself to move through the barrier. Lee was sound asleep on the bed, snoring up a storm. Her eyes instinctively fell to the floor as she stepped out of the room and pulled the door shut behind her.

Neji was out there, waiting for her, leaning on the wall opposite of her cabin with his arms folded tightly across his chest. His snow white V-neck shirt gripped the contours of his muscles beautifully, exposing his body for the world to see. The forest brown and white plaid shorts he had hung from his hips in a sexy way, she didn't know really how to describe it. The same black and blue athletic shoes that he had worn last night on the bow were bound to his feet tightly by electric blue shoe laces. His hair was silky soft and tied at the back of his abdomen, the single hair band containing the feathery strands.

His miniature, gray moons flickered to her as she pulled the door shut softly, attempting not to make any noise. Tenten turned to him and was caught in his gaze, mystified by the beauty that radiated off of every inch of his body.

"It was awfully quiet in there," he said, taking notice to the fact that there had been no yelling, no arguing with Lee. Because there wasn't. The alcohol had him knocked out cold.

"He's down for the count." She shook her head and merely stood so close to Neji; close enough to hold, close enough to initiate a beautiful happening, but far enough away to where neither he or her reached out to touch the other.

Neji's phone vibrated within his pocket, and he knew that Tenten heard it, but he didn't reach for it. Rather, he completely ignored it, as if it hadn't made a noise in the first place. Knowing the people that he left back on land, it was probably Asuma, Tsunade, or Hinata. All three of them could wait until the moment came when he wasn't giving Tenten his full attention. Of course, that time would only come when they would depart from one another.

Tsunade told him earlier today that Asuma had finally asked Kurenai on a date, and that she had accepted. It was about time; he had been eyeing her up for about six months now, and still hadn't had the courage to say anything to her. It was a good thing that Tsunade had intervened and brought the two of them face to face.

Neji had to smile to himself. If things with Tenten progressed favorably, then he and Asuma could double date - the girls usually liked to do things like that. It was one of those things where girls could make friends with other girls without being concerned that either one of them is going to attempt to steal the other's man.

"What?" Tenten couldn't help but let a warm beam snake up her cheeks. Neji's grin was contagious to her, and he shook his head, never letting his smirk falter.

"Nothing," he said. "I'm just thinking about what's going to happen when we get off this ship on Thursday."

Tenten lifted an eyebrow and was automatically raging inside with curiosity. She wanted to know what he had in mind for her. She already knew that she wanted to go on a romantic and mushy date with him, despite the fact that such a thing used to never interest her. If they went to the lake and stared up at the night sky, holding hands as they called out the constellations, that would be perfect. If they went further, however, and made love under the sea of stars, she didn't think that she would argue.

"A friend of mine just recently went out with a girl that he's had a crush on for months, and, perhaps, if things go well with them, the four of us can go out together."

"Like a double date?" she asked, and he nodded, biting his lip. "Neji, why is it that I feel like I've known you my entire life?"

"Maybe we have known each other forever. Maybe we just had yet to meet."

That was deep. Somehow, Tenten felt moved by his words, and she wondered if maybe it could be true. Perhaps they did know each other, but couldn't put a name and a face to one another. Could that happen? It's almost like the ultimate form of déjà vu.

Tenten chuckled and couldn't help but to grab his hand and grin at him.

"C'mon, Mr. Insightful. Let's go to the party."


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter Eight_

Tenten's eyelids were lead weights that were being forced down upon her vision. She had been awake all night, most of her energy going into the party with Neji, where they had danced the night away. Not Cinderella style, but non stop hip-swinging, foot-stomping dancing. She couldn't remember a time when she had so much fun in her entire life; it may have even gained a higher score than sex.

But the party was over now, and the light was peeking in through the window of the cabin that she was supposed to be sharing with Lee. He was still asleep, but she had a feeling that he would be waking soon. After all, he had been lying on that bed, unconscious, for almost twenty-four hours. Was that even natural? Had he not been breathing, she would have called somebody for help.

She watched him with sorrowful eyes, knowing that she had to hurt him, despite the fact that that was not her intention.

Lee's eyes rolled under his lids, and a slight moan came from his mouth as he moved around on the bed, pushing himself up from his stomach to his hands and knees. Had he not slept off all the alcohol in his body, he definitely would have been hungover. Immediately, he turned his attention to the presence of his lover, who sat at the small table on the far end of the room. The tension between them tightened immediately, and for a short while, neither of them could bring themselves to say a word.

Tenten's heart drummed quickly and forcefully within her chest, so much so that it almost began to hurt. She deserved it though, for what she was going to do.

Though, what she was going to do, she couldn't remember; she had rehearsed what she wanted to say over and over within her head, but now that she was meeting with him face-to-face, she couldn't seem to grasp her thoughts. Why was this? Was the guilt finally beginning to harness itself in her body, latching to every single nerve under her flesh? Whatever it was, she was going to have to eradicate it from inside her, tear it off. Better to rip the bandage off swiftly, rather than gradually peel it.

"Lee, can we talk?" she asked in a small voice, one that she had never heard come out of her mouth. Typically, she was confident in everything she did and in every word she said. But now, all of that fortitude seemed to drain out of her, leaving her almost afraid of the words that were going to come out of her mouth.

Lee faced her, but didn't get off of the bed. Instead, he lowered himself backwards and sat on his glutes and crossed his legs pretzel style. His hands cupped one another loosely and sat just inside of his overlapping ankles. His jet black hair was a mess around his face; he almost looked like a lionhead bunny.

"Tenten...what did I do?" he murmured lightly, his heart breaking with every word. Every syllable that he muttered was one moment closer to the terrible end. He didn't want to lose her to some Fabio Lanzoni. How the hell was he supposed to compete with that?

This question caught Tenten off-guard, and at first, she didn't really know how to answer it. It wasn't his fault; none of this was his fault. He did nothing wrong, but she was well aware that she couldn't give the infamous 'it's not you, it's me' speech. That was so cliché, and it would probably hurt the situation more than help it.

"You didn't do anything, Lee," she said, and her voice trembled. Dammit, she was going to cry; Tenten never cries. She wasn't supposed to be filled with all of these girly emotions. Pushing the tears back up into the ducts above her eyes, Tenten took a deep breath in order to regain her composure. "I don't think either of us could have prevented this."

"I could have." Lee's caterpillar eyebrows pulled together as he, too, attempted to act like an adult, rather than an emotional teenager. "If I had not booked this damn cruise, then you would have never met this other guy."

Tenten's brows furrowed and she stood up from the table, her feet movingic swiftly across the floorboards. Very gently and oh so gracefully, she sat down at the foot of the bed and grabbed Lee's hands, holding them tightly within her grasp.

"Lee, I love you, you know that right?" she asked him, and she waited for his hesitated answer. It was only natural that he wouldn't be feeling the honest affection from her right now. But it was still there. She still loved him, but their marriage just couldn't be; not when she knew that Neji was out there, waiting to wrap her in his embrace.

"If you love me, then why is this happening?" Lee didn't look at her; he couldn't force his eyes to lock with hers, because he knew that he would be swarmed with some kind of negative emotion, whether it be sadness, anger, or fear. "If you love me, then why would you let another man walk into our happy life?"

Tenten squeezed her eyes shut as she held Lee's hands tighter, pressing them to the center of her chest. He could probably feel the throbbing of her aching heart, and if he could, he would most definitely wonder why she was hurting if she was the one breaking everything off. The truth is, this wasn't easy for her, either. Having to face the person you love and tell them that there is somebody else that you want to be with; there is no worse feeling.

No, there may be one feeling that surpasses that one. Being on the opposing end; wondering why your lover is severing ties, wondering what you did or didn't do, wondering why it had to happen. _That_ had to be the worst feeling.

"I didn't _let_ him," her voice quivered as she brought herself to speak. "It just kind of happened. It's like learning to ride a bike; you think you've got the hang of it, and you're pedaling away, but then you fall and scrape your knee. You don't know why it happened; it just did."

Lee could feel the anger slithering up his throat. "That is not good enough," he spit and clenched his hands into tight fists.

"What more do you want from me?" Tenten asked him. "If another woman came along and you found that she was everything you had ever wanted, I would let you go. If you found your princess at the top of the tower, I wouldn't hold you back. I would tell you to chase her, make her fall in love with you, and then make her scream your name in such a heated passion."

"I did." Lee turned his eyes to Tenten and released the tension in his hands. Their eyes met, and Tenten was forced to remember all of the times they shared together, whether they be good, bad, or passionate. "I found you. I chased after you. I made you fall in love with me. I have made you scream my name, over and over again. You know as well as I do that what we had was not fake."

"I never said that what we had was fake." Tenten shook her head, almost hurt that he would believe that everything that they had been through was forced. Up until the moment of meeting Neji, she was prepared to walk down the aisle in a long white dress with a veil covering her head. She was ready to march at the side of her father, who would then pass her off to the man that would one day be the father of her children. She had been completely set to stand face-to-face with Lee and exchange vows, and she was completely and utterly prepared to seal the legal vows with a kiss. Before she had met Neji, she had been excited for her honeymoon with Rock Lee, and couldn't seem to wait for it. It didn't matter where they were going to go, as long as the burning sexual desires were fulfilled tenfold.

"Then, what, Tenten?" Lee broke her thoughts. "Why are you so quick to leave me and go to him? This is only the third day of the cruise. How could you possibly know that you love him?"

All of his questions were too overwhelming. She understood the fact that it didn't make any sense whatsoever, and so she couldn't even begin to explain it.

"Lee...I've been waiting for this man my entire life," she spoke softly. "I didn't know that the man of my dreams existed until two days ago. I didn't want to stay with you, Lee, and continue to think about him while we were together. I wouldn't want you to have to deal with that."

Lee shook his head, unable to grasp the concept, and almost unwilling to let her go. She couldn't seem to understand that _she_ is the girl of his dreams. He wanted her more than anything else, and the idea of losing her to another man was unbearable. There was no way that he would lose. If this was a battle for the girl, Lee would put up a fight.

"Then forget him," Lee said, removing his hands from hers and holding her shoulders. His eyes bore deep into her soul, trying to attach himself into her so maybe - just maybe - she would realize that her infatuation with this Neji guy was temporary. "I will do anything for you, Tenten Akiyama."

Tenten shook her head. "Then let me go..."

No words came out of either of their mouths. Lee's hands dropped from her shoulders to the bed, and he felt an extreme sadness wash over him as he watched Tenten stand up. She brought her left hand to her right, and slid the diamond ring off of her finger delicately. Tenten handed it over to Lee, who held out his hand reluctantly so she could drop it into his palm. Without a word, she threw what few of her belongings she had into her suitcase and zipped it shut tightly. Tugging it off the ground, Tenten turned to the door that waited for her to open it for the last time. And she did. Before stepping into the hallway and allowing it to close, she fished her cardkey out of her back pocket and laid it on the desk, where empty margarita glasses piled up.

_Goodbye, Lee,_ she bid a silent farewell to her ex-fiancé without turning around to give him a final glance. Rather, she stepped out of the cabin room and allowed the door to shut. That was it. Rock Lee and Tenten Akiyama were no more.

OoO

Neji laid, sprawled out, on the surface of the bed in his first-class cabin. He promised Tenten that he would be here waiting for her, and that he wouldn't leave the room until she came and told him what was going on. To pass the time, he had decided to answer all of the text messages that he had ignored last night while he was at the party with Tenten.

Tsunade was updating him on the Asuma-Kurenai situation, and she had notified Neji on the fact that a second date was scheduled. She told him that Kurenai had asked to see him again, and so date number two was her idea.

Asuma, on the other hand, was busy writing a novel about how his first date with Kurenai went, and how she couldn't get enough of him. The man was thrilled that his date went well, but he was still overly nervous about the second date.

Hinata was texting him from college out west, telling him about her classes. She said that she really missed a boy that she had met during high school. This boy must be something special, if he won the attention of Hinata.

Neji sighed and rolled over onto his back, terribly bored and wondering if Tenten was going to come back. What if her fiancé convinced her to stay with him? It would only be fair, since Lee had her first, but Neji didn't like the idea of losing the one woman that he found to be perfect. He knew that he was being completely selfish in this aspect, however he had never fallen for anybody before, especially not like this. The moments that he wasn't with her, he felt almost incomplete. She quickly burrowed herself into his heart, and she wasn't about to leave.

He stared up and out the window at the top of the ceiling, watching the clouds drift by without a care in the world. A few birds fluttered by overhead, and a slight grimace twisted onto his face. Why was it that every other living creature didn't have to bother with falling in love? Wouldn't it be much simpler just to find a suitable mate and fornicate?

Neji's mind immediately flickered to the idea of making love to Tenten, and he bit his lip. She wasn't the kind of girl who would just allow the man to dominate her. Rather, she could probably take charge once in awhile, which wasn't such a bad thing.

He could almost feel her under his grasp, with her limbs constricted around his body so tightly. Almost, he could hear the sound of their harsh gasps for air, hear their cries of pleasure. Already, he could taste her, the salty sweat invigorating his taste buds. He could almost feel her hardened breasts under his hands, under his lips.

She was beautiful.

Before he knew it, Neji's body had grown physically ready, able to act on his raging thoughts. However, Tenten was not here, and he doubted she would want to have sex so soon. Frustrated, he groaned and realized that he would have to do this by himself for now.

OoO

"Hey, you!" somebody called out to Tenten as she made her way down the hallway towards Neji's room. With her suitcase in her hand, she turned around to see a blonde girl walking towards her, and automatically became annoyed with the Neji Hyuga fan club. These girls were getting on her nerves; Neji wanted nothing to do with them, so why did they continue to try?

"Yeah?" Tenten replied, trying so hard to suppress her agitation. The blonde girl didn't speak until she came within a few feet of Tenten.

"Are you going to see Neji Hyuga?" she asked, and Tenten raised an eyebrow. She was afraid that she might have to take her suitcase to the girl's head if she tried anything crazy. Tenten nodded, but didn't say a word; she felt that if she did, it would come out rude and snarky. "I'm gonna warn you," the blonde began, and Tenten almost rolled her eyes, "watch out for Shizune and Karin," she warned. Tenten raised an eyebrow. "Shizune just went through a bad breakup and is looking for rebound, and Karin is...well? Karin is just horny. They both have their eye on Neji, so they may get catty if they see you with him."

"Thanks." Tenten nodded. She wanted to tell her that she, too, just went through a breakup, but Neji wasn't her rebound. Neji was the reason why the separation happened to begin with. The blonde pursed her lips and exchanged the nod before continuing on to the room that she shared with her two friends. Tenten sighed and followed in her steps, only turning to the door that belonged to the beautiful angel named Neji.

Before knocking on the door, Tenten let a deep breath escape her lungs. She cleared her head and wondered if Neji did what he said he was going to do and wait for her. Tenten brought her fist up to the door and struck the wood with her knuckles. Very faintly, she heard the toilet flush and quick footsteps pounding closer and closer to her position. The door opened, but nobody greeted her.

Pushing the door open before it closed on her, Tenten poked her head in and heard the water running from the bathroom sink. She stepped inside and placed her suitcase along the side of the door, abandoning it and waiting silently for Neji or Natsumi - whoever it was who had opened the door for her.

The water shut off, and the sound of bare feet approached her. Tenten turned her eyes to the left, where Neji was smiling brightly at her, drying his hands on a towel.

"How did it go?" he asked, coming close to her, but not touching her. If she was still engaged to Lee, then he wanted to keep her wishes straight - she didn't want to touch him or be touched by him while she belonged to another man.

"I did it," she said, sounding much more somber than she thought she would. It was just...she didn't like the fact that she had to hurt Lee. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she could feel the guilt welling up in her body, taking over her controlled emotions. Tenten sniffed and found that all of the blameworthiness was pouring out of her body in the form of tears.

This wasn't right; this wasn't how it was supposed to be. She wasn't necessarily sad that she was no longer with Lee, but she couldn't help but feel that Lee was crying, too.

Neji, upon hearing her sniffs, knew immediately that he had to do something - anything - to comfort her. For the first time, their bodies came close to one another; not just close, but their chests were pressed together and Neji's arms snaked around Tenten's shoulders. His hands caressed the back of her neck, and he compressed his cheek to her temple.

A sort of pain stabbed through his body as her stress and tears engulfed him completely. This feeling had never been inflicted on his body before, and he didn't know how to make it go away. It hurt - my God, it was excruciating - but it seems as though there was no off switch for it. As long as he was going to love Tenten, he was going to hurt when she did.

His arms unconsciously squeezed tighter around her, as if attempting so desperately to hold her together, as if she was going to fall into little pieces before him. That wasn't the case, though. Tenten was stronger than that.

She forced her hands up to her eyes and wiped the tears away, sniffing once more. Her eyes were slightly red, but they weren't puffy at all. Neji glanced down at her, and immediately, he was shocked at how beautiful she looked whenever she cried. It was like seeing the pulchritude of the moon for the very first time.

"Why the hell am I crying?" she asked herself and prepared to leave Neji's embrace, but he tugged her closer and squashed her against his firm body. She didn't entirely know what was going on, but this was what she wanted; she wanted Neji Hyuga, and she gave up her fiancé for him. Tenten touched her hands to Neji's back and squeezed him in a snug envelop. This was...nice. It was better than nice. Nobody in the world could have made her happier than he did right this very moment. And this was just a loving squeeze.

What would her happiness be like when they engaged in sex? It would probably burst through every cell in her body.

"You're so beautiful," he murmured at her ear and let out a deep exhale that caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand erect, like soldiers prepared for their commander's order. Tenten grinned and nuzzled her nose into his long and flowing hair, and noticed that he smelled of some kind of fancy cologne. Did he always smell like this?

"Neji..." she murmured, and loosened her grip on his body. They took so much energy to pull away from their attracting bodies, but only retreated far enough to where their eyes could lock. She found herself falling lost within his moons, but she didn't seem to care. She wanted nothing more than to be lost in him forever.

Now, finally, that she was no longer bound to another man through the seal of a diamond ring, Tenten allowed Neji to crane his neck forward and mesh his lips to hers. This is what she had left Lee for; _he_ is what she left Lee for. A swarm of fervent passion came over them, and their first kiss formed into their second kiss and their third kiss. It was as if they couldn't bear the idea of breaking it. They need it, this love, this heart-throbbing moment. It was such a heavy necessity, so much so more than the demand for oxygen.

Neji's strong hands caressed her hips, holding her firmly and bringing her hips closer and closer to his. He could curse himself for letting his mind wander while she was breaking it off with her ex-fiancé; what if she initiated sex? There would be no way that his body would be ready to react within such a short time after his previous release. That would be a little awkward to explain to her.

The door swung open, and it smacked the new couple quite roughly. Neji's shoulder had instinctively moved forward in order to prevent Tenten getting hit, and so had taken most of the impact. Natsumi came strolling in, or at least she would have if she hadn't come in to see her son wrapped in the embrace of the woman who - the last time she checked - was getting married to another man.

Tenten and Neji allowed their grip on one another to drop, and they stepped away from one another reluctantly. Natsumi's eyes flickered back and forth between the two, and she glanced down to Tenten's left hand, which was jewelry-free. No longer was that stunning rock slipped onto her finger, signalling her unavailability to other men.

"I take it you talked to your fiancé," she said simply before stepping into the room and closing the door. Tenten nodded, but didn't say a word. "How did he take it?"

"Not too good," she sighed, "but not too bad. I guess it could have been worse. But I told him the truth." Her eyes flickered to Neji, who watched her protectively. "I told him that I didn't want to be with him and continue wishing it was Neji. I wouldn't wish that kind of superficial relationship on anybody. I told him that he will one day find his princess, and that he will be her knight in shining armor."

"Well, now you two can be happy together," Natsumi said and grabbed a bottle of water out of the miniature refrigerator. There was a small grin on her face, and Neji knew exactly what brought her happiness; never once had he found a woman that he remotely wanted to spend any amount of time with. He had never been in a relationship, and had never fallen in love, never had a crush before.

Which led him to the fact that Natsumi didn't know for certain; he had never had sex before. But now that he had met Tenten, he knew that he wanted that to change.

_Tenten Akiyama,_ he thought as his eyes were glued to her alluring face. _Take my innocence away from me. Take my virginity._


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter Nine_

Tenten and Neji, hand-in-hand, wandered throughout the ship in search of new possibilities and adventure. A lunch fit for a king had been served around one o'clock in the afternoon, and so they had mosied down to the first class dining room to replenish their bodies with nutritious foods. The meal was unlike anything Tenten had ever experienced before; it was like orgasm after orgasm happening simultaneously inside of her mouth, invigorating her tastebuds. She didn't know exactly what she was eating, for the names of the dishes were in another language. Neji had told her that it was mostly French and Italian, and that she didn't have to worry about questioning the food.

When she glanced at the clock before leaving the dining area, Tenten was shocked to see that she and Neji had spent two hours indulging their senses in new things - she was, anyway. He told her that he was used to this kind of extravagance. It must be nice to have money.

The entire time that she and Neji were not closed up in the confinements of his cabin, Tenten prayed that she wouldn't come in contact with Lee. It would save all three of them a lot of heartache and headache if they didn't see one another for the rest of the trip. It was Saturday, and they still had four more days until they reached land again, which she didn't really mind, as long as Lee didn't confront Neji.

Natsumi, after taking a shower before lunch, had abandoned them and told Neji that she had met a lovely gentleman who had lost his wife a few years back. They had something in common, and they could empathize for one another's pain and loneliness, and so they sort of hit it off.

Neji couldn't stop grinning after his mother told him about her escapades, and he reminded Tenten that the whole reason for he and Natusmi being on this cruise at all was so she could find some sort of tranquility and happiness. If the man that she had met could give her that, than Neji would accept him.

Of course, Neji had yet to meet this mystery man, and so was a little bit skeptical of him, but Natsumi had promised that the two would meet. She even suggested their meeting over breakfast tomorrow morning, or lunch, if their entourage was too exhausted from the cruise's third party.

Neji and Tenten had already decided that they were going to go, their goal being to attend and survive every single party that the ship's staff could throw at them. They were young, and they weren't going to stay young forever. Might as well enjoy the time that they have.

Neji squeezed Tenten's hand as the two of them ascended the stairs from the dining hall, taking their time and not rushing themselves on this relaxing trip. Tenten's eyes flickered first to their conjoined hands, and moved her way up his arm and to his face, where she could see his beautiful, crystal clear eyes gazing down at her with such warmth. A sort of happiness just seemed to overflow within her body, and she could feel herself literally falling harder and harder for Neji Hyuga.

It was crazy; she had never believed in love at first sight, because she felt that everything must have a base to build off of. But with Neji, there was an immediate spark between them the moment their eyes met. From there, the passion continued to grow hotter and hotter until it burned brighter than a thousand suns.

"What do you want to do until the party?" he asked her, and her mouth moved to the side as she thought about the question. It was three o'clock, which meant that they had four hours to kill before the party even started. She hadn't gotten any sleep last night, because she went directly from the festival the previous night to Lee's cabin. She had to stay awake the entire night, because if Lee woke up, it was possible that he would have gotten himself intoxicated again, just to put off the inevitable conversation.

In complete honesty, she wanted to go back to the cabin and sleep, but she didn't want Neji to be bored by himself. Just thinking about her own deathly fatigue caused her mouth to open in a wide "O" and the corners of her eyes watered.

Neji laughed. "To bed, it is, then," he said, and continued to lead her up the stairs until they reached the deck. Their sneakers clacked on the wood dully as their feet dragged across its surface.

"We don't have to go to bed," she said, coaxing him to do something that he wanted to do, not just follow her up to crash on the pillows. Although the thought of sleep did appeal to her nicely, and her brain begged for a rest.

"But we're going to be up all night," Neji argued, veering in the direction of the stairs leading to the first class cabins. "Beautiful ladies need their beauty sleep, y'know. Plus I wouldn't mind shutting my eyes for a few hours."

Tenten didn't have the energy to argue. The thought of pillows and a bed sounded heavenly right now, and the fact that she would probably be sleeping in the arms of an angel made the idea even more palatable.

Neji and Tenten reached the acme of the stairs and stayed true down the hallway, trudging along until they met face to face with Karin, whose eyes immediately dropped to their conjoined hands. She didn't say anything, but both Neji and Tenten could tell that she was bursting at the seams with anger and jealousy. Her breasts were waterfalling out of her shirt that looked two-times too small, and her lavender shorts practically exposed the pair of cheeks that weren't on her face.

It was almost disgusting, how far women would go upon exposing themselves, just to accomplish one thing: to please men. Showing men skin wasn't going to make them love her any more than they would or would not have. Simply, it would make them more apt to be sexually used, then abandoned and left behind.

_Maybe that happened to her,_ Tenten wondered, toying with the thought. It was quite possible that the tomato-head had been with many partners, all of which didn't love her whatsoever. They may have only wanted her for her body, and thus would have said or done anything just to sleep with her.

"Good afternoon, Karin," Neji greeted his temporary neighbor with a grin that he attempted to keep hidden. He was well aware of her intentions for him, and he didn't want to make her angry at Tenten for coming along and spoiling the fun she had in store for him. Not that he would have slept with her to begin with. In all honesty, out of all three of those girls living across the hallway, the only one he would even remotely consider pursuing was Temari, because she was down to earth and practical. However, he never desired her in the first place, especially not now that he had met Tenten.

Karin forced a painful smile as she stomped passed the two happy people, giving Tenten a glare that would have been menacing to a typical girl. Tenten, however, wasn't at all afraid of anything that Karin could do. She had been in fights with guys; she grew up with three older brothers, so she learned how to wrestle and box at an early age. Quite frankly, the worst thing that Karin could probably think of was nowhere even close to the torture of the half-Nelsons that her brothers used to put her in.

Tenten had to stifle her laugh, saving it for after she and Neji stepped into the cabin room and the door was closed and secure. The moment she heard it latch, she busted up laughing at the desperate redhead. Neji raised an eyebrow and pressed his back to the closed door, watching his new woman with a smirk spreading across his face.

"What?" he asked, chuckling himself as his eyes followed her to where she fell onto his bed. Tenten stretched her entire body out and tore her hair out of the hair tie that kept it in a bun. The feeling of the releasing tension of her muscles was a wonderful experience, and when she finished, she rolled onto her side and studied the pulchritudinous man that stood across the room.

"You're quite popular with the women," she said, and she knew that she would have felt jealous, had Neji actually been interested in the overexposure of skin.

"Yeah, well," he began as he started dragging tired feet over to the bed at the far end of the room, "there's only one woman for me." A dazzling grin filled with perfect pearls flashed at her, and Tenten smirked, sitting up. Her face became serious immediately.

"Then we should probably make this a quickie so I can get out of here before she gets back."

Neji laughed whole-heartedly for the first time in such a while, and he playfully pushed Tenten backwards onto her back. She tugged his shirt and forced him to fall down on top of her. The moment their eyes met, all of their joking seemed to fade instantly, and such a deep and awe-inspiring love seemed to wash over them.

_Should I say it?_ Neji pondered inside his head, his thoughts thrashing around to no end as he attempted to find a mutual point of agreement within his brain.

_Would it be too soon?_ Tenten wondered as she gazed up at his beautiful face. She wasn't used to things going this quickly, however she couldn't tell if she was ready for the challenge or not.

_What if she thinks I'm strange?_

_What if he thinks I'm coming on too strong?_

_Will she laugh at me?_

_Will he kick me out?_

For such a long moment, they laid on that comfortable bed, ogling into the other's lovely eyes. His moons, her spheres of chocolate. Together, they melted to one another and mixed, not in the physical sense, but deeper than that. Emotionally, mentally. They were completely in sync with one another, and their harmony could not better be matched.

For once in his life, Neji was filled with uncertainty. He didn't know what was going to happen between him and the angel under his chest. Typically, he could figure out what was going to go on, but with Tenten, it was as if she was a cliffhanger - he couldn't seem to guess what was going to happen next. Never once had he experienced this, and it was almost terrifying to him. His heart throbbed in both a fear and in a passion. With this love, he knew that a weak spot had formed deep within his heart.

_I can't say it._ Tenten chickened out.

_I can't tell her yet._ Neji sighed internally.

_He'll think I'm trying to move too fast._

_She'll think I'm trying to use her._

Neither one of them said a word. Rather, Neji craned his neck down and pressed warm lips to hers, kissing her with such a flame that his head began to spin faster than the speed of light. He was dizzy, intoxicated by the woman on his bed, but he couldn't seem to find the will to abandon her lips. Her hands glided over his pectorals, fingering every inch of his chest in an innocent curiosity; her touch sent waves of chills tingling down his spine, but he didn't want her to stop.

However, despite both of their urges to stay wrapped in one another's embrace, Tenten's fatigue was growing on her, and she breathed a heavy yawn into Neji's mouth. He broke away from her and watched as more tired tears sparkled at the corners of her eyes. He couldn't help but snicker at her, just a little bit.

With a kiss to her forehead, Neji reached backwards to the top of the bed, grabbing two pillows and rested his head on one, positioning the other under Tenten's temple. Face-to-face, they examined every facial feature of the other, falling in love over and over again as the seconds ticked by. Tenten, however, began drifting peacefully through the stages of sleep, floating through the twilight phase and gradually falling deeper and deeper until she reached rock bottom: REM.

Neji smiled at her, despite the fact that she couldn't see him, and he allowed himself a few moments to treasure the placidity of his sleeping woman's face before succumbing to the weight of his own eyelids.

"I love you," he whispered, knowing that she could not hear him, and he followed her path through the four stages of NREM.

The room was quiet. It was peaceful. The low hums of tranquil breaths were the only thing that signalled that there was still life in the room. Outside the window, the waves cracked around the edges of the ship, and the birds flapped their feathery wings, frollicking through the endless blue skies. The blue skies, though, began growing darker as the sun faded away over the horizon.

Music could be heard outside on the deck, and the sound of it disturbed Tenten from her dead sleep. Her eyelids drifted open gradually, and she expected to see a beautiful man laying next to her, and was surprised when she didn't. Her eyebrows crinkled together and she sat up, glancing around the darkened room in search of the person who had been here when she fell asleep.

Beyond the wall by the door, there was a light coming from the extension of the room; the bathroom light glittered onto the dark floor of the main cabin room. Blinking once, she gradually pushed herself off of the bed and positioned herself onto her feet, wobbling for a moment as the blood rushed down from her head.

"Neji?" she called out to him, and he came out of the bathroom, taking a comb through his long and flowing tresses. He watched her with concern in his eyes, wondering if something was wrong. While he didn't say a word, she could sense his worry. With a tiny grin, she stepped closer to him and protruded herself up onto her tiptoes in order to bestow a kiss upon his unsuspecting lips.

"How did you sleep?" he asked when she returned her heels to rest on the floor.

"Quite nicely." Tenten nodded with satisfaction. She wasn't sure how she was going to sleep, considering the fact that it was her first time - with a clear mind - sleeping with Neji in his bed. However, she felt completely rested, and felt as though she could take on anything. "You ready for party number three?"

"With you," he said and grabbed her hand, holding it gingerly but firmly, "I'm ready for anything." Tenten grinned and almost blushed, but she contained the blood within her body and tugged on his hand, leading him to the door. He allowed her to direct him through the doorway and into the hall, where they met with the three girls who were rooming across the hall.

Tenten was instantly reminded of how Karin had attempted to threaten her, and she had to stop herself from smirking at the jealous girls. The blonde girl that she had come in contact with before - the one who warned her about Karin and Shizune's jealousy - rolled her eyes and stepped forward with a forced grin.

"Hey guys," Temari greeted them, initiating the group's long and awkward stroll down the first class hallway. "You going to the party?"

"Yeah, we are." Neji's fingers laced tighter around Tenten's holding her metacarpals securely. A jolt of excitement coursed through her veins as her physical connection with Neji strengthened. The act of holding hands was very intimate, in her case. It was a symbol that the other person was there for her, and would stop at nothing if she ever needed some sort of assistance. She could only hope that Neji felt that way.

"Were you there last night?" she asked, and in unison, Neji and Tenten nodded as an inaudible reply. Last night's party was incredible and, actually, quite racy. After the minors were sent back to their cabins at one in the morning, the adults began acting like crazed teenagers, playing chicken in the pool, dancing on top of things, people telling drunken stories, clothes were flying off of people's bodies...it was legitimately a crazy night.

"I'd like to say no, but the truth is we were there," Neji chuckled at the thoughts of the previous night. He was pretty sure that he and Tenten were the only two chugging down those girly drinks and not becoming intoxicated. He didn't know how many they had had, but the bartender continued to place once drink after another in front of them. If he remembered correctly, he lost count at seven Bahama Mamas.

Had Tenten broken things off with her ex-fiancé yesterday, Neji couldn't have promised that the two of them wouldn't have gone crazy like the other adults. But Tenten was a fine woman, very classy, despite being tomboyish. She did not want any physical contact between her and him until she had a chance to tell Lee what she wanted. There was a great amount of respect that he had for her, and quite frankly, it turned him on.

"Apparently," Tenten began as they stepped out of the hallway and into the dusk, "the parties get crazier and crazier as the days pass."

Temari laughed genuinely and began her descent down the stairs, moving towards the mass of people that were already dancing and talking and laughing and consuming shrimp cocktails. While none of them knew exactly how crazy it really could get, Tenten had to wonder, and she thought about one thing: what if Neji's clothes come off?

Immediately a feeling in her body caused her to suck in a short breath. The heat in her lower body pulsed between her legs as she took her steps down the stairs. If Neji was this beautiful with his clothes on...

_Stop, Tenten!_ she scolded herself. _We're going to be in public. You can't get horny now._

The music was blaring, vibrating the floorboards below their feet. Tenten and Neji glanced around, and Temari, Shizune, and Karin took off in the other direction. Temari waved to them in a friendly tone, and the couple turned in the opposing direction, heading for the right of the ship. There were people galore, all caught up within their own entertainment and business. Tenten was shoved by a man, who whipped around and laughed out an apology; he didn't have to apologize, because he forced her closer to Neji. She clung to his arm, looking up at him and grinning.

Tiki torches were lit and the flames licked the tropical air, dancing through the rapidly-approaching night sky. The scent of smoke and delicious food invaded Tenten's nostrils, sending her to a fantasy unlike any other.

"Do you want to dance?" Neji asked her the moment they reached the bow. He hand her hand lightly and began leading her over to a spot close to the pool, but far enough away to where they wouldn't get wet. Tenten couldn't force the agreement out of her throat, for it was clogged with a lump. As an improvisation, she nodded and allowed him to touch a single hand to her hip.

The beat of the song was fast, the base of the music almost sounded like bongos, and Tenten was prepared to show her angel the skills of her feet. Gracefully, they twisted and turned, pounding the wood below her soles. She didn't have to think about her moves; the music just sort of took over her body, and she instantaneously felt beautiful and seductive.

Neji raised his eyebrows, clearly impressed with how her feet could move. However, he was not about to let her outdo him. He outstretched his arm, retreating from his date, but never once letting go of her hand. He allowed the beat to pulse through his veins, and he permitted his body to move freely.

Tenten bit her lip; his dancing style was elegant, but definitely had some spice of sexual appeal into it. The way he moved his hips made her want him even more than she already did. Her desire for him ignited with an inextinguishable heat, and the music caused her to swing her hips and move in closer to him. She placed one hand on his left hip and gazed up into his eyes in an unintentional seductive manner.

Neji raised an eyebrow and caressed her body tightly to his, feeling the romance between them set in. He felt every curve of her body compressed to his, and she felt wonderful, and he couldn't seem to control the thoughts of her and him in the beautiful exchange of sex.

The hours passed, and soon enough, it was one in the morning. The minors were sent to bed, and the open-bar came out. The adults around them quickly became intoxicated, wobbling around on their feet as they continued to dance.

Somebody was shoved into Neji, and the domino effect started and ended swiftly, the final pawn being Tenten, who was flung into the pool viciously. Neji jumped backwards so water wouldn't touch his body. He watched carefully as she shot up from the bottom of the pool, breaking the surface with a choking cough. Why was it always her that gets pushed? Then again, he couldn't particularly complain; that was how they had initially met.

Cautiously, he squatted down and held his hand out to her. "Grab my hand." Tenten glanced up at him, experiencing the déjà vu. This had happened before, but this time, she had already fallen in love with the man before her. Tenten reached up and linked her hand with his, clasping both of hers onto his one. She put her feet on the top of the pool and he began heaving her out.

Playfully, she smirked at him, and he cocked his head in confusion. Using the muscles in her legs, Tenten flung herself backwards, tugging Neji into the pool with her; if she had to suffer with wet clothes, then so did he.

Neji took in a breath when he realized that he was falling forwards, coming closer and closer into the water. No... He was too far into gravity's despicable hands, and there was no way he could dream of repositioning himself on solid land - or at least the solid floorboards of the ship.

Tenten's head was submerged under the water again, but she was prepared for it this time, and had a chance to suck in a deep breath.

Neji's body collided with the surface of the water, breaking it around his figure and falling into the depths of the pool. In a panic, he shot back up and flung his hair out of his eyes. He had to get out of here.

Tenten emerged from the water, laughing playfully with him - or so she thought - and she held his hands, moving closer to his body. When he attempted to pull away, desperate to get away from her, her eyebrows pulled together and she looked at his face. Some scar tissue that she had never noticed before caught her attention on his forehead. It was a peculiar shape, almost like a cross, but the ends curved counterclockwise. There were two more scars that decorated the sides of his forehead, coming to meet - but never touching - the awkward cross.

"Neji..." She reached up to touch his forehead, but he yanked away from her and quickly pulled himself out of the pool. Shaking his head, he ran away from her, clutching his fist over the scar, as so not wanting anybody to see.

The image was branded onto Tenten's brain as she began wondering how on God's green earth his body created such an intricate design on his forehead. It couldn't have been natural...it had to be inflicted by himself or by somebody else.

Tenten, with a rapidly thrumming heart, tugged herself out of the pool and took off in a full-out sprint in the direction that Neji had disappeared to.

_Neji..._ she thought to herself as she squeezed her eyes shut in pain as she bounded across the side of the ship and to the stairs that would direct her to the hallway of the first class cabins. _What happened?_


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter Ten_

"Neji!" Tenten raised her voice and pounded on the door to his cabin. "I know you're in there, Neji! Please, open the door!" There was no reply from within the room, so Tenten pressed her ear to the wood and let her eyelids fluttered shut. What was it about that scar on his forehead that made him lock himself in his room, secluded from her and from everybody else. What happened to him? Who inflicted that design on Neji's flesh?

Clearly, there was something that he didn't want her to know, and so he was going to hide himself from her. She hoped that he wouldn't push her away from him, because she didn't know if she could bear it. If Neji told her that he couldn't see her anymore...No, that couldn't happen. She was madly in love with him. She...she gave up Lee for him.

Tenten's eyebrows pulled together as she compressed her dripping wet body closer and closer to the door, squashing herself to its surface. There was a pain radiating in her chest, agonizing unlike anything she had ever felt before. It consumed her heart and spread out gradually throughout her entire body, devouring everything in its path. She was going to be completely swallowed by this wallowing ache, and as it intensified, she flattened herself closer to the door. It was almost as if that solid slab of wood was the only thing holding her together.

She needed Neji. She needed to know what was wrong with him. In all honesty, she didn't care what had happened; nothing would change the way she felt about him. All she wanted to do was be with him, embrace him and hold him so close, tell him that everything would be okay. Whatever had happened to him, she would push aside and continue to love him with her entire heart and soul. She wouldn't allow her love to wither away. Death would come upon her before that would happen.

Tenten, standing in her own puddle of chlorinated water, sank to her knees and touched her forehead to the door. Her fingertips tenderly brushed it, and her breath gingerly embraced the solid barrier between herself and her love.

"I won't leave, Neji," she whispered, knowing that he would not hear her anyway. "I will never leave you. I promise."

Tenten rotated her spine, touching her back to the only obstacle blocking Neji from her. Sitting on her butt, she crossed her ankles and held her own hands together on her lap. She didn't entirely know how long Neji was going to stay in there, shunning her, but she prayed that it wouldn't be too long.

If he didn't want to tell her what happened, that was fine, but she felt the undying need to be there for him and comfort him in his fear and sadness. It was something she had never before felt...the - for lack of a better word - dependence. She never wanted to depend on a man before, and she didn't want to have a man depend on her. People needed to be there for themselves and help themselves without the aid of another. But now...she wanted to be able to turn to Neji with anything, and she desired the same from him in return. They were supposed to make their lives joyous and easier, and they were supposed to be there for each other.

_Neji..._ her thoughts begged as she turned her eyes to the ceiling, studying her surroundings nonchalantly. _Please, don't push me away..._

While she was well aware that he couldn't hear her thoughts, she hoped to God that he could hear what was in her heart. Some people believe that if you speak to someone through your heart, they'll hear you. Never once had she believed that, because she thought it was illogical and a bunch of hokum. However, she prayed now that it held truth, and so she wished with her entire entity that he would allow her to stay in his life. If he didn't...she didn't know what she would do.

What could have possibly happened to him...? It had to be something terrible, if he was locking himself in his room. She didn't even want to guess, because she didn't want to put herself through the psychological agony of terrible things happening to her beloved Neji. It wasn't even possible for her to guess the circumstances. How did such a design poison the flesh of Neji's forehead? It definitely wasn't natural.

Tenten grasped her soaking wet mop, squeezing her tresses in stress. She could have groaned, but nothing came out; if she would allow her voice to utter a sound, she couldn't promise her emotional strength.

Natsumi's slender body drifted through the hallways with a feeling of unease. Her face twisted into a tight grimace of both fear and heart-wrenching sorrow for her son. She was alone; the man that she had supposedly gone off with was nowhere to be seen. The hallway was completely vacant, aside from the two women who stared at one another.

Tenten jolted up quickly and her eyes watched Neji's mother with such a concern that rattled her entire body. Her heart beat even more rapidly with every step that the woman took towards her. There was something about Natsumi's countenance that caused fear to seep throughout Tenten's veins, but she wasn't entirely sure what it was. Perhaps the grave expression in her eyes, or the contortion of her face.

"Natsumi..." Tenten whispered, shaking her head in unknowingness. The lack of information that she had was going to kill her, and she hoped that the mother of her love would tell her what was happening. Emotionally, Neji needed somebody. Despite the fact that she didn't know what happened, she was well aware that Neji needed somebody to lean on, or even, perhaps, a shoulder to cry on.

"If I tell you about the scar," Natsumi murmured when she allowed her feet to dig into the ground, her figure coming to a halt, "will you still love my son?"

What kind of question was that?

"Of course." Tenten blinked, watching as Natsumi nodded and continued moving towards her, reaching out to grab the bottom of Tenten's sopping wet, black camisole. Cocking her head, Tenten watched carefully as Natsumi brought her head down to meet the fabric that clung to the form of the young lady. She began wiping away something on her forehead, thoroughly scrubbing it.

When she stood back up, there was a scar that exactly resembled the one that stained Neji's forehead. What the hell was going on? Somebody had to have done this to them...whoever it was, was an evil person.

"Neji's grandfather was a highly successful man, who put his heart and soul into the family business," she began, folding her arms over her ribs. "He knew that he wanted the business to keep going, and so he wanted his firstborn son to be the heir. When he found out that his wife was pregnant with identical twins - both being boys - he decided that the second son would be the first's protector.

"Hiashi and Hizashi were born - Hiashi only minutes before his younger twin brother. Hizashi - Neji's father - was doomed to be the protector of his older brother, and his family was cursed to bear the burden. Upon reaching the age of five, Hizashi's father took a white-hot branding iron and pressed it to his son's forehead. He proclaimed that every descendent of Hizashi would be protectors of Hiashi's descendents.

"The significance of the branding iron is the fact that he was cursed forever. There was no way that he would be able to rid himself of his scar, and so he was perpetually the slave of his brother.

"When I married Hizashi, I was well aware of what would happen to me: I would be branded. But I loved Hizashi to the ends of the earth, so I didn't care what sort of pain I was forced to endure. I was branded the moment my new husband and I returned to Konoha from our honeymoon. The pain was the worst I had ever experienced physically. I'm not quite sure if childbirth was worse or not.

"When I had Neji, I was afraid of his fate. He would suffer the same excruciation that his parents had, and I wanted to protect him no matter what happened. However, when his cousin, Hinata, turned three - Neji was five - Neji was branded by his grandfather. Hizashi was forced to hold his son by his arms to prevent him from squirming.

"Afterward, after Neji had passed out because of the pain, Hizashi cried. I had never seen that man shed a single tear except for this day. Our son was to protect his cousin with his life, and that branding was his constant reminder.

"The reason he didn't want you to know about it was probably because he didn't want to marry you. He didn't ever want you to have to suffer the way he did, and he never wanted you to be a part of our family's curse. He didn't want you to be branded."

Tenten shook her head, unaware at first that there were streams of tears pooling down her cheeks. This didn't matter to her. She had to be with him; she didn't give a damn if his family tried to put that scar on her head. She would endure it, embrace it. She would conquer it and protect Hinata with her life. Of this, she was certain.

"Please," Tenten begged the disquieted mother and gripped her arms firmly. "Please, open the door. I need to tell him that it's okay..."

There was a quick breath that was sucked into Natsumi's lungs, and she stared at Tenten with eyes of admiration. She could see herself in the young lady that was clearly in love with her son, and she remembered the strength that she once had to embrace the fate that would fall before her if she married Hizashi. That same willpower resonated off of Tenten's flesh like ten thousand burning fires, and there was no way that Neji would be able to push her away from him.

The exact circumstances occurred between herself and her late husband, Natsumi reminisced. He had kept his secret from her for so long, but it was only a matter of time before she saw the terrible scars on his forehead. Like their son, Hizashi attempted to push her away, and had almost succeeded. Natsumi remembered the horror she felt in her heart, because of the fact that she would endure the same if their relationship progressed to matrimony. In a panic, she had locked herself in her room for two days, embracing the ripping pain that burned in her heart. With every hour, the loneliness and the heartache intensified tenfold, tearing her apart bit by bit until she could no longer stand it.

She needed Hizashi...she loved him. For him, she would endure anything. She would be branded, and she would do it with a smile on her face. But the sharp stabbing of her heart without him, she couldn't bear. Anything was better than that.

And so she returned to him. They embraced. They married. She was branded.

Natsumi, with a river pouring from her eyes, stepped forward quickly and wrapped Tenten in a tender embrace. Her body trembled, her recollections bringing a sort of pain back to her chest. But it was okay. She continued to grieve over her husband, but his death led to her son finding his true happiness. Everything was weaving together.

"Thank you," she sobbed before retreating from the determined and youthful woman. Natsumi tugged her keycard out of her pocket and shoved it into the slot, and upon seeing the green light flicker, she opened the door. Natsumi held the door open for Tenten, who stepped in almost inaudibly. She glanced back at her knight's mother, who gave her a tender smile before shutting the door and separating herself from Tenten.

"Neji!" she called out to him, searching the darkness of the room. Her eyes scanned the perimeter in a desperate attempt to find the body of her dear love. The room was completely pitch black, and she didn't entirely know where the light switch was. She was going to have to find him without the light. "Neji, I know you're in here," she shouted, but to no reply. With a sigh, Tenten shoved her fists to her hips and turned to the right, poking her head inside the bathroom. There was nothing; not in the corners, not in the tub. Vacant.

The room was only so big; he had to be in here somewhere.

Tenten revolved around on her toes and paced back out into the main room, her eyes flickering to the beds, which were made to perfection. She glanced over to the counter where they spent that first night drinking and confessing their life stories to one another. The glasses had been washed and were placed inside one another, creating two pillars on the far left of the counter.

Tired of the soaking wet shoes on her feet, she stepped on the heels of her sneakers and stepped out of them, abandoning them on the floor. Her bare feet slid mindlessly on the floor, drifting across the floor gracefully. Under her soles, puddles of water led her around the counter, where she glanced down to the floor. In between the stools, with his back pressed to the base of the counter, Neji sat with his legs arched, his knees approaching his chest.

Without taking a single second to think, Tenten fell to her knees and snaked her arms around Neji's neck, holding him in such a tight and passionate embrace. Together, they allowed the tears to spill as they rocked back and forth in a comforting manner. Neji gripped the back of her tank top, clutching the drenched material in his strong, trembling hands.

"I'm so sorry, Neji," Tenten sobbed uncontrollably, feeling the excruciating pain seeping into her flesh from his sorrow. "I won't leave you. I promise."

Hesitantly, he turned his watery eyes to her, sniffing once before bringing her close to pilfer a kiss from her lips. Allowing her eyes to flutter shut, Tenten tapped into her sense of touch, feeling every single brush across her flesh, feeling the sensual heat form below her hips. She wanted him. She needed him. Her entire being desired him, and wished for him to take her right here and right now.

With every kiss, even more passion diffused through Neji's body, forcing him to want her in every way, shape, and form. He couldn't contain himself. This was more than a simple want, far greater than a demand. Every cell within his body needed her. This need forced another vulnerability point upon him, but this one, he had no dream of overcoming. The requisite for her was something that would never fade; only burn hotter as the days passed on.

Tenten snaked her fingers through the thick mane of her dear knight, grasping his locks tenderly as his lips caressed her throat. A tingling sensation coursed throughout her nerves, spiraling up and down her vertebral canal, causing her to let out a ragged breath. She had never experienced something that felt so - for lack of a better word - good. The fact that this was simply his lips on her neck was something that excited her. Imaging what having him inside her could feel like...a response of anticipation heated through her lower body.

Neji's hands peeled Tenten's soaked tank top away from her flesh and slid his hands up her abdomen, feeling goosebumps trickle up in response to his touch. She allowed him to slip her shirt over her head and toss it over to the side, flopping to the floor in a watery puddle. His arms wrapped tightly around her body, his hands holding the arch of her back and compressing her figure closer to his.

With a beautiful passion, he allowed his lips to move across her clavicle and down to her chest, where he planted tiny kisses across her breasts, tasting her and the chlorine on her skin. Tenten sucked in a breath and lifted her legs, constricting her thighs around his hips. Her nerves jumped the moment he pushed past her bra and flicked his tongue against her nipple.

Tenten slipped her hands back through the loop that his arms created around her and began tearing at the buttons lining down his chest. She needed him to take her. She didn't entirely know how much longer she could take the tension. The sensation burning through her body was too great to keep contained. She needed him now. She needed to scream his name and cry out into the night.

The moment all of the buttons on his shirt were undone, Neji ripped it off of his body and tossed it into the puddle where Tenten's camisole sat. Unable to contain himself, he unhooked her bra and tore it away from her soaking wet figure. Their chests were bare and compressed to one another, the curves of their bodies molding together and melting as the passion increased tenfold.

Neji's hands brushed up Tenten's sides, stroking her up and down her torso, causing the goosebumps across her flesh to stand erect across her epidermis.

Tenten could feel him growing ready; his body pressed against her entrance, but was blocked by their clothes. Unable to control herself anymore, Tenten reached down and slid off her athletic shorts, revealing her naked body to him. Immediately after flicking them to the gradually growing pile, she reached for his pants and tugged at the button, forcing it open. Neji removed himself from on top of his dear love and allowed his pants to slip down his thighs, where he kicked them off of his shins and ankles.

Tenten bit her lip the moment she saw the length of his hardened member, still contained by the briefs that hugged his hips. Before he had a chance to peel those off with his thumbs, Tenten used the muscles in her abdomen to sit up and brush her fingertips up his thighs. She kissed his naval and grasped his shaft with a single hand. She stripped him of the last article of clothing that prevented them from engaging in the beautiful activity of sex.

The moment that flesh met flesh, Neji sucked in a breath. He had never once experienced the touch of a woman, and right now, at this very moment, he realized what he had been missing. He was throbbing under her touch, and his body was rapidly growing warm and cold and back through the cycle as her hands gingerly caressed him.

She moved her hands tenderly across the back of his hips and touched his back, tugging him close to her and falling backwards onto the ground, bringing him on top of her. With such a heated passion, she stole a kiss from his lips, caressing him within her mouth. Her tongue swiped against his bottom lip before he opened it, allowing her access. His muscle jolted forward the moment hers entered his mouth, and they danced with one another, snaking around the body of the other.

Neji's hand stroked her jawline and he embraced her skin as their tongues tangled vigorously. Tenten bit his lip as she retreated from his mouth, gasping for the breath that her lungs were lacking.

"I love you, Neji," she murmured, almost shocked that the words came out of her mouth so easily. No, they didn't escape her mouth...her heart allowed them to burst from inside her core.

"I love you, Tenten." Neji pilfered a kiss from her lips, sucking out whatever breath she had managed to catch.

"Take me," she begged him, squeezing her thighs tighter around his hips. Her hands found themselves enmeshed throughout his thick tresses, weaving in and out through each strand. "Love me."

Neji took in a deep breath; this was it. The moment that everybody raves about was finally about to happen to him - not that he had been dying for it before he met the beautiful woman before him. Circumstances proved that she would stay with him no matter what; if she could embrace the idea of being branded with his family curse, then she could face anything. She was a brave soul.

With trembling hands, he grasped her thighs, taking them and compressing them towards her chest. His erection throbbed as the anticipation grew hotter and hotter, and instantly, he grew anxious. He had to control his breathing, really focus on it in order to prevent hyperventilation.

He held her firmly as he forced his way into her, hearing a gasp of pleasure escape the lips of the woman under him. The moment he thrust himself in his entirety into her slick entrance, Neji moved onto her body, and their bodies moved in harmony, as one.

Tenten's muscles clenched around Neji's slender and muscular form, holding him tightly in her grasp. She found his left hand on her hip and retrieved it, interlocking her fingers with his as their breathing became more rapid with each and every thrust.

Neji squeezed Tenten's hand as he increased his speed, feeling some sort of feeling welling up within his abdomen. It was a feeling like no other, and each time she tightened her walls around him, the sensation increased tenfold. This is sex...this is what he had been missing his entire life. However, there was nobody else in the entire world that he would have rather shared this with. It was with Tenten; there was a passionate love exchanged through them as they continued to propel into one another that he could not explain. It was as if, all of a sudden, the world was perfect. It was as though they were the only beings in the world, and they could stay wrapped in one another's embrace.

Their lips made contact once again as every movement became more forceful, as they jammed into one another, wanting more but not having such physical strength or stamina to ever truly satisfy that need. Neji's teeth clung to the bottom of Tenten's lip for only a moment before slipping off, giving him the ability to latch again. Every kiss was fervent as their bodies began to perspire. The room began to grow musky with the heavy stench of sex. However, all of these things stimulated the lovers, forcing them to hold back their climax and continue.

Neji held on so tightly, attempting with such force not to come until she was completely satisfied and crying out. He wanted to please her; he wanted nothing more than for her to beg him to let her have her release, and when he did, he desired for her to scream his name and writhe in her own orgasmic passion.

It seemed like a far-fetched want for a virgin, but he would persevere. He didn't care what it took; he would continue to hold on until it was physically and inhumanly impossible to keep from exploding inside of her.

Every muscle in Tenten's body ached as they trembled, feeling a climax like no other coming before her. It was only a matter of time - it wouldn't be long at all - until she wouldn't be able to breathe.

"Neji!" she moaned, holding his hand tighter and gripping the hair on the back of his head more firmly. There was a feeling of achievement that filled Neji's brain, but he couldn't stop; not until she finished.

Forcefully, he dipped his hips and thrust, arching them upward as he created almost a circle. He wondered if this would work; was it possible for him to reach the coveted G-spot? Even if it wasn't - even if it didn't even exist - he continued to arch his hips with every thrust into her, attempting to make her want him more and more.

Tenten couldn't take it any longer. With every thrust, she was ready to scream in such a rejuvenating passion. This was like nothing she had ever experienced before, and she had had plenty of experience with sex. Perhaps this was due to the fact that she really and truly loved Neji, and because there was legitimately nobody else in the world for her. It was him, and it was always him. It would always be Neji who would make her cry out now. He was her knight.

Together, despite being two physical bodies, they were one. The way his body moved with hers, the very puzzle-perfect way her figure molded to his...they were perfect. Clearly, she wasn't supposed to be with anybody else, and he was supposed to find her. They were destined to meet as star-crossed lovers, compelled to fall in love, the fate of this night unavoidable. God created him to be with her, and her to be with him. All around, they were meant for one another in every way, shape and form.

Tenten's entire body trembled as she could feel herself moments away from a beautiful climax. Her mouth was wide open in a scream that couldn't seem to find its way out of her lungs. The hand that was embraced by Neji's compressed, squeezing Neji's fingers with crushing strength as the sensation continued to throb inside of her. It tortured her with sexual tension that needed to release; she was going to explode if it was contained any longer.

Neji continued to thrust with everything he had, holding in his own finish. It felt much easier to move in and out, and it felt a bit more slippery than it did when he first entered her. He could still feel her tightening her muscles around him, milking him for everything he had. It felt as though she was winning in that effort.

The muscles in his abdomen tightened, quivering under the strain, and the same began to trickle down his body, halting at his thighs. The breath that had been held so tightly in his lungs burst out in a heated moan, which aroused the woman underneath him farther, pushing her over the edge.

She reached her finish, and the moment Neji felt her body squirt her juices onto his pulsating member, he let go. All of the tension that had filled his body released into her, freeing his seed into her body. The most wonderful and unimaginable sensation washed over him as he came into his lover, and then, rapidly, he lost strength; relaxation took over him as he pulled his limp body out of her and fell to her left side.

Breathing heavily, the lovers gazed at one another and watched as their chests fell up and down. Tenten couldn't help but to smile at him and a small laugh came out of her throat. She had given up Lee for the most beautiful man she had ever seen. She gave up Lee so that she could be with this man. She had given up Lee to have the best sex she had ever experienced in her young life.

It was official. They were lovers.


	11. Chapter 11

_Chapter Eleven_

Before he knew it, the light of day was shining down into his cabin room, calling him to rise and greet the new morning. Neji squeezed his eyes shut, frantically trying to return to the deep slumber that he had been set in. Snuggled under the blanket that he had yanked off the bed in the middle of the night, he felt around for the woman that he had made love to, though, she was nowhere to be found. The space next to him was empty, and the floor underneath the thick comforter was cold.

His stomach churned as he thought about the worst possibilities: either she was only using him for a one night stand, or she decided that she wanted her ex fiancé back. Neji sprang up, glancing around the room on his half of the counter, but saw nothing. Though still completely naked, he moved onto his hands and knees and peaked around the barrier dividing the room in half.

His fear was released when he saw her seated upon Natsumi's bed, wearing nothing but the T-shirt he had given her that first day when he knocked her into the pool. Why was it that something good happened to him every time Tenten fell into a pool? Not that he was complaining; last night was the greatest night of his young life. Never once had he felt more entranced by a woman, or had felt a love so deep for anybody. Tenten released some sort of seal on his heart, giving him the power to take in all the love she gave him and return it to her. It was almost like a cycle: Her love swarms into him, his love seeps into her, going around and around their conjoined bodies and never ending. Perpetually, he was hers.

Neji sighed and stood up, taking the blanket around his body as he stepped out from behind the counter. Tenten's eyes flickered to him the moment he was caught in her peripheral vision, and a warm smile formed on her face. She couldn't help but remember the events of last night.

There had been a total of four times, each one of them different and even more powerful. After their first time of exchanging the gifts of sexuality with one another, Neji had gotten up and tugged the comforter off of his bed and threw it over their snuggling bodies. It wasn't before long that they had both succumbed to the heavy persuasion of sleep. However, sleep didn't last too long for them. Simultaneously, they had woken up, craving more whether their bodies were ready or not. They allowed their animalistic brain to take over, and they ravaged one another, their desire for one another too intense to imagine. After reaching a second beautiful climax, they, again, had fallen under the power of their fatigue. And again, they awoke and had one another. And they had fallen asleep. And a fourth time, they drifted back into consciousness and fulfilled their craving for one another. After that time, their bodies couldn't take it anymore, and they collapsed.

"I've got so many hickies," Tenten laughed, examining the bruises that peppered her flesh. Neji cocked his head and watched as she pulled her hair back, observing the discolorations that decorated her throat. "I have no idea how I'm supposed to cover them all."

Glancing down at his own body, Neji saw some of the same colorings on his arms and chest. He turned to the mirror that was placed in between the beds and saw that his neck was coated with the bruises. He didn't remember feeling any sort of pain last night; how could something that he couldn't feel have such an impact on the veins in his body.

"Sorry," she apologized, noticing the way he was examining his skin in confusion. "I got a little carried away."

"No." He licked his lip, touching the blotching bruises under his jawline. "I'm just wondering when this all happened. It didn't hurt at all." His eyes turned back to Tenten, who watched him with a beautiful and confident grin. Her eyes showed him all of her happiness, and he could tell that she was completely content with the way things were. She didn't seem to be regretting leaving her ex fiancé, and she didn't seem to deem sleeping with him a mistake.

"So," she began, crossing her legs and looking ten times sexier than he ever could in that shirt, "how does it feel to no longer be a virgin?"

Neji grinned awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. So she had remembered that when he was under the influence of alcohol and had confessed it to her. It had been so brief a topic that he didn't think she would be able to retain that detail so well. Perhaps it mattered to her that she stole his virginity from him...not that he would have fought against her to keep it.

"I lost it to you." He shrugged. "You won't find a happier man out there."

Tenten grinned in satisfaction. She had completely made Neji hers, and the other way around. They were lovers now, and her mind couldn't seem to get enough of that thought. It was like an ecstasy to her, a drug that nobody could take away from her.

She noticed how he clutched the blanket to himself, as if he was afraid of her seeing his body. Nodding once, she came to the realization that he was still a virgin at heart.

"You don't have to cover your body," she said, standing up off of the bed. "I've already seen you naked, you know."

Grabbing his hands, Tenten felt the blanket fall around their ankles, but didn't bother turning her attention towards it. Rather, she pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and molded her lips to Neji's, kissing him deeply. While the flame and desire for one another hadn't completely extinguished, neither of them had the strength to shoot for a fifth time. The friction alone was killing them, burning at the touch. It hurt, but it was completely and totally worth it.

"I'm going to take a shower," she informed him, starting towards the bathroom, but not breaking her hold on his hand. Stopping, Tenten glanced back towards the virgin-at-heart and couldn't help but snicker at him. He was so innocent. "You coming?"

Neji's eyes opened wide in perplex, clearly confused on what he should do. Tenten laughed at his chastity and allowed his hand to drop.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," she said and turned around, pacing for the break in the wall that led to the bathroom. She was almost disappointed that he didn't want to take a shower with her; it wasn't like she had the energy to come onto him for a fifth time. Perhaps he just wanted his space. She was the cause of him sleeping on the floor last night, after all. But still. She felt it would be nice to just have the intimacy of taking a shower together.

"I want to," he blurted out, and Tenten turned around to see him still standing where he was, but his eyes watched her carefully. Perhaps she didn't hear him clearly? "I want to," he repeated, stepping towards her and grabbing her hand, caressing it. He brought it to his lips and he kissed the back of her hand gingerly. Tenten's heart skipped a beat as her eyes examined every stunning feature on Neji's face.

Licking her lips, she brought her second hand to overlap his and smiled at him. Stepping backwards towards the bathroom, she led him along through the cabin, their feet brushing gently on the hardwood cabin floor.

The moment they stepped into the bathroom, Neji closed the door and Tenten flicked on the light, examining her skin in the mirror. It looked dry, most likely due to the chlorine that she let sit on her skin overnight. Her hair felt stringy as she ripped the hair tie from the top of her head, allowing her shoulder-length tresses to flop down tiredly. Tenten tore off the T-shirt that she had used to cover herself, and she couldn't help but study the bruises on her body from Neji's teeth; she was marked by him. She was his territory.

The bite-marks were everywhere; on her throat, across her breasts, down her stomach, even on the insides of her thighs. They had gone completely animalistic last night, and the results proved such. There were literally no words to describe both the physical sensation and emotional passion that passed through her body last night. Never once had she felt so alive.

The water turned on behind her, and she glanced through the mirror to see Neji standing in the shower, running his fingers through his hair. She turned around, tossing her locks behind her and stepping into the shower stall, closing the curtains behind her. For a moment, she and her dear lover were lost in one another's eyes, drowning within the love that cycled throughout them.

Neji couldn't help but touch her hips, allowing his fingers to wrap around her curves. He tugged her closer to him and brought his mouth down to meet hers with a low-key heat. Despite the fact that his body could react again to the idea of a fifth sexual encounter, his muscles were exhausted, and he figured that Tenten felt the same. Four times in one night was crazy, but they did it without a word of objection.

While he had never felt so exhausted in his entire life, he also had never felt so calm and so content. There was something about this woman that made all of his fear dissipate into nothing, leaving no scars, as if the fear had never been there to begin with. This woman...he could never let her go. He was past the point of no return.

The waterfall poured down over their bodies as they intertwined with one another, wrapping within their lover's warm embrace. There was a beautiful passion that filled their hearts and souls, filling them completely and leaving no space for anything else. They were young and in love; there was nothing that could possibly tear them apart.

Closer and closer, their figures began molding to one another; Neji's arms constricted so tightly around her torso; Tenten's legs snaked around his hips and contracted. Not a single object could fit between their bodies; such proved difficult for even the water that drenched them to slither down in between their melted flesh.

Fervently, their lips parted and crushed one another, over and over caressing tongues and lips. As if it was even possible, their muscles contracted tighter, bringing them closer and closer until the force between them was crushing.

From outside the bathroom, Neji heard the cabin door open and he forced himself to retreat from Tenten's lips. Listening carefully, he heard the person tap on the door, and the voice of his mother called out to him.

"Neji, are you in the shower?" Natsumi's voice rang from the outside, muffled by the sound of the water pouring down around Neji's ears. With keen ears, he was able to make out what she was saying.

"Yeah," he shouted to her, the sound of his voice echoing in the shower stall. Softly, gently, he lowered Tenten down, supporting her weight until her feet gripped the slippery ground below them. Tenten poked her head under the stream of water and drenched her hair before reaching around her lover to grab the shampoo that Natsumi had on a rack.

"Where's Tenten?" she asked him, and immediately, his eyes grew wide and he turned his attention to the woman in front of him who lathered her hair in soapy suds, stripping the strands of the chlorine that had set in. She grinned at him almost deviously, and he wondered what she was plotting.

"She's in here!" she bellowed out, causing Neji to turn red in the face almost instantly. His blood boiled under his skin in embarrassment, and Tenten smirked at him, leaning under the showerhead to rinse her tresses. When there was no immediate response from his mother, Neji began to worry that she was disappointed in the fact that her son had lost his innocence. Could she inference from the situation now what had gone on last night?

"When you're done in there, I have to talk to you, Neji," she finally said, and Neji's heart pounded. While he was twenty-three, he still feared what his mother thought of him, and didn't want her to think poorly of her only son.

Tenten grabbed Neji's shampoo bottle and squeezed the goo into her palm. Stepping up onto her tiptoes, she threw her hands to the sides of Neji's head, massaging the lather into his locks.

"Don't worry about it." She beamed at him as her hands slipped through his hair. "A part of me thinks that she wanted this to happen." Neji was speechless, and his only reply was his eyes turning down to his newfound lover. Before he could even think of the words to relay back to her, she brought her mouth to his, taking possession of his lips. Instantaneously, Neji was lost in a trance, completely captivated by the magic of love.

It was strange how easily this single person could hypnotize him so easily. Originally, he had trained himself not to fall for the actions of others, and to never let his guard down. But this... Tenten broke down his guard the moment her body broke the surface of the pool's water that first night. She linebacked her way through the wall that he had built and she stole his heart, the one thing that he had been protecting all these years.

Because she knew that Natsumi was in the cabin waiting for them to finish their shower, Tenten broke their kiss abruptly and reached around Neji's body for the conditioner. She decided not to keep her waiting out there, and she definitely kept any arousal down to a minimum. It would probably be a bad thing if Natsumi had to witness the sexual cries of passion coming out of her beloved son.

Quickly - just as she was used to - Tenten rinsed the conditioner out of her hair and swiftly lathered herself with soap. Her hands glided across her flesh with little resistance, and she stepped under the head of the shower, switching places with her flame while he took his own conditioner through his locks. With a waterfall pouring down over her bare figure, Tenten rinsed all of the soap away from her skin, allowing the dirt, sweat, and chlorine swirl down the drain at her feet. With that, she stepped out of the shower, leaving Neji to finish his.

She grabbed one of the clean towels off of the rack that hung just above the sink's counter, and she wrapped it around her body snugly. A smile crept up the sides of her cheeks involuntarily as she wrung her hair out over the sink. Her night with Neji was incredible, and it wasn't something that she would easily forget. That night would more than likely stick inside of her mind for the rest of her life. It was branded along her brain, never to heal, and never to remove. Her memory, like her love, was undying, perpetually a part of her for as long as she should live.

Tenten tucked the end of the towel under her axillary and moved for the door, realizing that she had not brought clean clothes into the bathroom with her. Oh well. It wasn't like she had anything that Natsumi hadn't seen before.

Reaching out for the doorknob, Tenten tugged it open, and instantly, all of the steam inside the room had swarmed out into the cabin in escape. A blast of chilly air hit her flesh, causing goosebumps to form on her skin.

She came face-to-face with Natsumi, who was sitting on her bed with her right leg crossed over her left knee. Her skin seemed to glow in the morning's day, and it seemed as though she had slept soundly. Her eyes were light and deep; definitely not as they had been the last time they had spoken. The branded scar on her forehead was covered perfectly with make-up, not that she could tell. It looked like skin that had not been tainted by a family's curse.

Neji would probably recover his before emerging from the bathroom. Despite the fact that Tenten knew about the scar and the history behind it, she was able to come to the conclusion that Neji didn't want others to see, because he didn't want others to ask. It was a painful memory and a terrible burden that he had to bear, and the less reminder of his curse, the better.

Tenten dropped to her knees gingerly in between the beds, reaching into her suitcase and deciding what it was she was going to wear today. Perhaps the pale pink halter top that she liked to wear when she was feeling a little feminine. With her army-green shorts, perhaps?

"Tenten," Natsumi called over to her, and she glanced up, thinking that she may be in trouble for taking away Neji's innocence. She met Natsumi's gaze and was held in it for a moment, bound tightly by the eyes that her son had inherited. "Thank you for loving my son." The gratitude was completely unexpected, and had caught Tenten off-guard. In reaction, her eyes blinked once, twice, thrice, and then the words sunk in. "You are a brave soul, to take on this curse without any fear."

Tenten opened her mouth to speak, but Neji came out of the bathroom rather quickly, a towel constricting his hips. On top of his head, a second towel was bound tightly around his hair, keeping it contained and from dripping puddles of water everywhere. Instead, she gave Natsumi a warm and silent smile. She didn't need thanks for falling in love with Neji. If anything, _she_ should be thanking _Natsumi_ for giving life to this man.

"What did you need, Mom?" he asked, moving swiftly throughout the room and heading over to his bed, where on the floor, his suitcases were seated. Tenten exchanged a quick grin with him before turning back to her own clothing matter.

"You were supposed to have breakfast with me and meet the man that I've been with on the trip, remember?" she asked, and Neji slapped his forehead.

"I completely forgot about that. I slept right through breakfast." Although he wasn't going to say why he had been so exhausted. That was a detail - or four details - that Natsumi didn't need to know about her son.

Natsumi licked her bottom lip. "He's actually waiting outside in the hallway to meet you."

"Then go wait out there with him, and we'll be quick to change," he reassured her, moving behind the counter while his mother stood up and complied with his request. Without another word, she dragged her feet to the door and opened it only a bit so her slender body could fit out.

Tenten tossed the clothes that she was planning on wearing for the day onto Natsumi's bed and stood up, allowing her towel to fall from her body. Her flesh reacted by covering itself with a thick layer of goosebumps, and she grabbed her shorts. She stepped into them one leg at a time, not caring about wearing undergarments. Going commando was the best way to do it. After tugging the shorts up and buttoning them at her hips, she threw on her halter top, fixing her breasts inside so that they would fit nicely without anybody noticing that she wasn't wearing a bra.

Neji yanked up his khaki shorts and slipped the button through the hole below his waist, kicking his towel in the direction of the clothes that he and Tenten had abandoned last night. Now that he was half-decent, he stepped out from behind the counter and grabbed a thin, white button-down shirt from off of his bed. He forced his arms through the holes and his fingers immediately reacted in buttoning the shirt from the bottom to his chest.

"Let me cover my forehead before you have her open the door," Neji told Tenten, who nodded in understanding and flopped down on Natsumi's bed. She used the towel, that had originally hung around her body, to mop up the water that her hair was leaking. Constricting the plush fabric around her tresses, Tenten squeezed it, releasing excess water that so desperately wanted to be contained in her locks.

By the time she had stopped the leaking, Neji was already exiting the bathroom, his forehead completely covered to perfection. At first, Tenten wanted to question how he applied it so quickly yet so perfectly. After a second to think, she came to the realization that he had been doing it for a while, since he had gotten that scar when he was five. Did he start using makeup when it hurt to touch it, or did he start covering it when it hurt too much to explain it?

Neji stood in front of the door and knocked on it, letting Natusmi know that it was safe to enter with whoever this man was. They could hear her touch the doorknob from the outside and shove her cardkey into the slot.

Tenten sat up on the bed and tossed the balled-up towel over the counter, aiming for the pile of clothes that had been forsaken last night when they were fervently taken off the bodies of their owners. She couldn't see if she made it to the pile or not, and she didn't entirely care. She was curious to see who this mystery man was, and so she sat on her knees and folded her hands on her lap.

Neji folded his arms, his mind racing through the possibilities. What did this man look like? What kind of background did he come from? Was he smart? A gentleman? Was he calm, cool, and collected, or was he energetic and fun-loving? No matter what he was, Neji had to be sure that this man was perfect for his mother.

When the door opened and Natsumi led her mystery man in, Tenten's eyes grew wide and her head cocked. Her mouth dropped open in complete and utter shock at the man who entered the room behind Natsumi. This world was so much smaller than she had ever imagined. She couldn't believe that Natsumi had found this man and had hit it off with him.

The moment the man behind Natsumi saw Tenten, his countenance took on a shade of hers, and he glanced back and forth between his new lady friend and Tenten, attempting to find the connection between the two ladies.

"_You're_ Natsumi's guy friend?!" Tenten asked him strangely, looking him up and down. She couldn't be more shocked by how tiny this globe really was.


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter Twelve_

Natsumi's mystery man grinned and scratched the back of his head, his silver hair moving with the persuasion of his hand. His dark eyes continued to flicker back and forth between the woman that he had been seeing the past few days and the young lady that he had been in contact with for many years. Upon his left eye, slicing down deeply, was a rigid scar that butchered straight through his pupil.

"Kakashi," Tenten started, scratching her bare thigh, "what are you doing here?"

"You two know each other?" Natsumi glanced back and forth between her son's lover and her own new eye-candy. Her dark curls bounced as her head continued to whip back between the two, who seemed to be rather friendly with one another.

"He's a good friend of my manager. He's also a regular at the Treeline Diner, a.k.a., where I work." Tenten threw her legs out over the edge of the bed and thrust herself forward, shoving her feet down onto the floor. Her body moved towards her friend and the two embraced in a tight hug. Immediately, a spark of jealousy clicked in Neji, and he was instantly envious of this older man. "Did Gai tell you to come here and look out for me?" she asked, retreating from the clasp.

Kakashi chuckled freely and shook his head. "No, actually. But he did tell me about a certain somebody's getting married."

Tenten blinked and her heart sank at the mention of her abandoned engagement. The thought of Lee filled her head, and she hoped with everything that she had that he was doing okay. It would be terrible if he kept himself locked up in his cabin room this entire time. He did pay for this trip after all; he should enjoy it.

Neji's eyes flickered to Tenten and watched as her facial features fell hard, and he was instantaneously concerned that she would leave him and go back to her ex fiancé. His heart discontinued its thrumming inside his chest, and he wanted so desperately to reach out and take her hand into his grasp. However, he didn't want to act clingy and desperate, so instead, he folded his arms over his chest and let out an inaudible sigh.

"Actually, Kakashi," Tenten folded her arms over her ribs and cradled her elbows in the palms of her hands, "that is no longer the plan."

With genuine concern, Kakashi's grin morphed in a mirror image and his eyebrows pulled together. "What happened? What did Lee do?"

Tenten laughed half-heartedly, attempting to put light on the dim topic. "Lee didn't do anything. I just...I met the man that I had been waiting for for my entire life." Her eyes flickered to her dear lover, who was caught red-handed within her gaze. The man of her dreams...yes, he was standing before her in this very moment, and she couldn't be any happier. The thrill of the knowledge of finding a soulmate was incredible and unimaginable. Never once had she thought that loving a man could make her feel this strong inside.

Kakashi took notice to the locked eyes between the young couple and put two and two together, realizing that the son of the woman that he had found ended up being the man that Tenten left Lee for. The world really was minute, wasn't it?

"Gai will certainly be upset when he hears about your decision," he said heavily, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his loose jeans. "He was really a big fan of Lee."

"I know, I know," Tenten said, holding back a groan that so desperately wanted to form an army and escape her throat. It was true, though. The moment Gai had found out about the engagement, he was overridden with joy, almost to the point of tears. It was also true that he will be highly disappointed when she tells him that the engagement is off. However, he can't be too mad; she found the man that she was put on this earth to meet. "But I had to do it. I couldn't promise that nothing was going to happen between Neji and me, and I couldn't bear the thought of cheating."

With a sigh, Kakashi nodded and turned his attention to Neji, who was scoping him out very carefully. It was clear that, because Tenten knew this man, Neji was a little more comfortable with Kakashi's seeing Natsumi. However, there were still tests that he had to ace before Neji could agree to let them continue seeing one another. While the roles seemed to be reversed, Neji knew that he had to watch out for his mother. She was a gentle woman, and she was vulnerable, due to the fact of her being widowed within the last year.

"Kakashi Hatake," Kakashi introduced himself to the son of his lady friend, and he held out his hand in a welcoming gesture. Neji licked his lip and took the greeting, exchanging his own hand for the silver-haired man.

"Neji Hyuga."

"Well, Neji," Kakashi took his hand away after the required social protocol of greeting an acquaintance, "there must be something about you. Your mother can't stop talking about you, and you even got Tenten to break off her engagement with Lee. What's your secret?"

Neji brought his shoulders up to his ears for a moment before allowing them to drop casually. "I can't say that I have a secret."

_At least not a secret regarding the reason behind women falling left and right for me._

"And what about your secret?" Neji asked, folding his arms almost challengingly. "What's the story behind that scar of yours?"

Kakashi touched his fingertips to the bulging scar tissue that coated the injury he once had attained. "Oh, this?" he asked nonchalantly, as if he had not even been aware of the deformation in the first place. "Bad bar fight, way back when I was your age. My closest friend, at the time, had accidently said the wrong thing to the wrong people, and I had no other choice but to fight with him. Some idiot brought a knife to a fist fight and took it across my eye." Tenten cringed, despite the fact that she had heard the story before, and was quite familiar with it. "Obito came out with only a few cuts and bruises, but I lost my left eye."

Neji, despite hearing the gruesome story, didn't even bat an eye. Then again, he had been through something similar, only more emotionally antagonizing. While Kakashi had merely been in an accident, Neji's grandfather knew exactly what he was doing whenever he branded his grandson.

"On that note," Natsumi butted in, attempting to come up with a topic on the spot that would lighten the mood of the room. "What do you two have planned for the day?"

"Sleep," Tenten answered immediately, her voice straining with the realized fatigue. Not only had she gotten very little sleep last night, but she also had worked her body through hours of vigorous activity. She was completely drained, and she was not afraid to admit it. At the mention of dozing off, Neji's body instantaneously reacted to the idea of losing consciousness. Never in his life had he been so exhausted. But it was one hundred percent worth it.

"That is a wonderful idea," Neji nodded in agreement, feeling the languor in his heavy muscles. Suddenly, his weight felt greater, as if it had been tripled. The moment Natsumi and Kakashi left the room, he would be collapsing on the bed. He didn't care whether or not he had a comforter, or if it continued to lay behind the counter. Sleep, sleep, sleep. That's all he needed. And his lover snuggled close to his side, of course.

"Didn't you two get much sleep?" Kakashi asked, butting into the intimacy of last night's escapades. By the look on Natsumi's face, if was obvious that she had inferred that there had been explicit content happening in this cabin room. It would be ignorant if she believed that anything else happened besides sex. "But you slept through breakfast."

"Let's not get on this topic," Natsumi laughed nervously, clearly not wanting to put herself into the personal business of her son. She reached her hand out and latched onto Kakashi's, yanking him towards the door. "C'mon, Kakashi. Let's let them sleep for a few more hours."

"We'll meet you for lunch," Neji promised, migrating towards his bed. Natsumi stood in the doorway and placed a hand on her hip.

"Is that a promise, or are you going to sleep through lunch, too?"

"I'll set an alarm." Neji lowered himself onto his bed and reached towards the top of the bed, where his cell phone was sitting. He constricted his fingers around the block of technology and heaved it towards himself, bringing his outstretched arm back inward. His shirt pulled upwards, and Tenten sucked in a silent breath as she saw a line of hickies running along his hips. It didn't look as if Natsumi or Kakashi had seen, most likely because they had not been particularly looking.

"Okay." Natsumi continued on through the door, stepping into the hallway and almost colliding with a couple of guys who were roughhousing. "I'm holding you to that, Neji Hyuga." Kakashi took his right hand out of his pocket and held it out to her, and she accepted it, entwining her phalanges with his. The door behind them glided shut, and Tenten let her posture fall.

"I am _so_ tired," she groaned, dragging her feet over to the bed and collapsed, face first, at the side of her lover, who was in the process of setting the alarm clock on his phone. Her nose crushed against the mattress, but she was too exhausted to focus on the pain. "This is what happens when you can't keep your hands to yourself," she said with a giggle as she rolled onto her side and gazed at Neji's profile. He tossed his phone to the floor and flipped onto his right side, staring into the chocolate eyes of his dear princess.

"Excuse me," he said, running his fingers through her damp tresses and caressing the nape of her neck. "If memory serves me correctly, you're the one who continued to touch me again and again."

"I don't even have to touch you for you to react." She winked and brushed her fingers up his thigh. "You're just lucky that I don't leave you hanging once you're ready."

Neji shook his head and brought his lips to hers, pressing them together so passionately. "I don't know how I'd be able to take that. That would be quite cold, Tenten Akiyama."

Tenten laughed, and she nuzzled her head under Neji's chin, allowing her eyelids to flutter shut. "I love you, Neji," she murmured, resting her arm on his hip. He snaked both of his arms in between hers and her hips and locked his hands at the small of her back.

"I love you, Tenten," he whispered. "More than you will ever know."

OoO

Hand in hand, Tenten and Neji stepped into the dining hall, both examining the tables back and forth in search of Natsumi and Kakashi. For some reason, the lunch crowd was much larger than normal. Perhaps more people had slept through breakfast this morning. Although there was doubt that their reasoning would be the same as the new couple's.

Tenten scanned the heads, searching for Kakashi's silver spikes; they shouldn't be that hard to find. Perhaps they hadn't arrived yet? However, her neck snapped towards the right whenever Neji began tugging her hand in the opposing direction. She followed his trajectory and caught a glimpse of Natsumi and her newfound date, the two sitting at a circular table and drinking water from shimmering glasses.

The moment Kakashi caught sight of them, Natsumi noticed and turned around, greeting her son with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. Neji pulled out a chair for Tenten and motioned for her to sit, and, like a gentleman, he pushed her in. He then seated himself and immediately took a sip of the water that his mother had waiting for him.

"What's on the menu today?" he asked, glancing back and forth between Natsumi and Kakashi.

"There's a choice of chicken and pineapple sandwiches, tropical salads, or clam chowder." Natsumi turned her eyes to the right as she thought back to the list the waiter had verbally given to her. "To me, it all sounds simple but satisfying."

"What are you getting?" he turned his attention to Tenten, who bit her lip in thought. It all sounded delicious - and knowing the staff in the kitchen, it probably was. However, she wasn't feeling in the mood for soup, so she eliminated the chowder. After last night's events, she felt that she could use some protein, so she decided against the salad.

"I think I'll have chicken," she answered, being caught in his gaze and smiling at him sweetly. Under the table, she reached over and touched his knee, stroking her thumb against him. A warm beam spread across his cheeks as he dropped his hand to his knee, holding hers tenderly. Together, their fingers danced, interlocking with one another. The warmth of the contact radiated throughout Neji's entire body, and he realized the intimacy of hand-holding. It was something that he originally thought to be trivial, but experiencing it now - after twenty-three years of living - made him acknowledge what he had been missing.

"So, Neji." Kakashi leaned back into his chair, completely relaxing himself. "Your mother tells me that you've got a degree in architecture." Oh, the attempt at making small talk.

"Yes, that's correct." Neji nodded, unconsciously clutching Tenten's hand tighter as the thought of college and degrees came up.

"What are you doing with it?" he asked genuinely. "Natsumi says that she doesn't really know what you do."

"I haven't been able to do anything," he said, almost snapping. The reason being: having to care for his mother when she fell mentally ill took up a lot of his time. He didn't want to take on a career if he would have to miss so many days. Natsumi's sickness was his main concern, and there had been no way that he would be able to hold down a job and care for her. But, of course, he couldn't possibly say that in front of his mother. "The job market has been terrible."

Tenten watched Neji cautiously; she was aware of why he had not been able to get a job. He had not even attempted to look for a job, ever since Natsumi fell ill. He had confided this in her that very first night that they had met, whenever they were drinking in his room. She also knew that he almost felt inferior to his parents, because they both had doctorates, while he only had a bachelors. He told her that he desperately wanted to go to graduate school and achieve the high educational status, but the same cause prevented him from doing so.

"Have you started designing anything?" Kakashi continued to pressure him, unintentionally. Neji's hand began to sweat within Tenten's, and she stroked her thumb against the top of his hand in attempt to keep him from stressing.

"Not anything good," Neji replied, taking a deep breath nonchalantly. While the topic did completely raise his blood pressure, he wanted to keep calm. He didn't want to ruin anything for Natsumi, especially since the whole point of this cruise was for her to find some sort of happiness. "But I'm sure some sort of inspiration will come down in a beam of golden light."

"That's the spirit," Kakashi laughed. "Just for a word of advice: while work is important, it should never become more important than the people you care about." Immediately, Neji's eyes flickered to Tenten, who gazed up at him from her chocolate eyes. There was no way that any job would ever be able to take him from her. _She_ was more valuable than any possible career he could ever dream of pursuing. She was everything he could ever want and more.

"It doesn't seem like that's going to be a concern for Neji," Natsumi said through a stifled smile, and she gazed into her glass of iced tea, peering at her reflection. "I'm glad."

By the time the crew member waiting on their table had come around, the topic of jobs had faded gradually into the matter of relationships, which drifted into the topic of marriage. The theme of matrimony caused Tenten to stir inside herself, but she kept herself calm. She prayed that Kakashi wouldn't bring up Lee; it would be a difficult dinner-table topic for her to endure.

Much to her relief, the fingers were pointed at Neji, who had never once had any sort of relationship with anybody before herself. She already knew that he hadn't really been interested in a relationship, but it was almost amusing to listen to Natsumi talk about how relieved she was that Tenten was here.

"Before you came along," she gestured towards Tenten, who blushed internally, "I was afraid that Neji would never open his heart to another person, let alone to a woman. He had been like that his entire life; he didn't really care for the way women threw themselves at him, and he certainly didn't like the attempted seduction."

"That's because when women try to seduce a man, it means they expose as much skin as possible and smother their faces with makeup." Neji pressed his lips to his glass and tilted it, allowing the ice water to seep into his mouth and slither down his throat.

"So you're saying Tenten didn't do anything of the sort?"

In unison, Tenten and Kakashi broke out in laughter that boomed at first, but they covered their mouths to contain the thunder. Both of the Hyugas exchanged a glance before turning their attention to their guests.

"Tenten exposing skin? Yeah right!" Kakashi blurted out, attempting to find his composure. He scratched the back of his head and crossed his right ankle over his left knee. "She's never been the kind of lady to use her body to attract men."

"What body to I have to attract men, even if I wanted to?" she asked, and Neji raised an eyebrow at her. Before he could say anything to counteract her attack against herself, Kakashi jumped the gun.

"Oh, stop. You're beautiful," he complemented her nonchalantly and sipped his water. Instantly, a flare of jealousy filled Neji's body, and he didn't know why. She was only half of this man's age, and judging by the sex last night and the emotion that filled the room, she wasn't about to leave him. At least he hoped that she wouldn't.

"I'm not saying anything against personal beauty," she said with a shrug, "but I'm talking about my physical body, in comparison to the bodies of other women my age. They're full, and they're curvy. And then there's me: flat."

"You're perfect," Neji blurted out, and all eyes at the table moved from Tenten to him, staring at him and his abrupt comment. Tenten's heart melted at his input and she squeezed his hand; for once in her life, she felt like an emotional girl - something that she promised she would never be. But now that she has Neji, it didn't seem like being more in touch with her emotions would be too bad. "Tenten, you're perfect."


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter Thirteen_

Neji glanced around at all the people that surrounded him, and realized that he recognized none of them besides Tenten. The moonlight glittered down upon the deck of the ship and the tiki torches blazed in the night, sending smoke fluttering through the tropical air. The music beat energetically, having the strength to persevere all night without falter.

Tonight - the fourth night of the cruise - the crew provided karaoke for the guests, and so far, it wasn't too bad. However, the night was still young and the alcohol had just been served. Undoubtedly, the singing and the acts of the various people on the cruise were going to decline in quality. He just hoped that Tenten wouldn't miraculously fall in the pool; she was running out of dry sneakers to wear.

Neji grabbed two glasses of margaritas away from one of the crew member's trays and handed one to Tenten, who held it up to him. With a clink, he tipped his glass on to hers and they threw their heads back, chugging the alcohol. This was their third round of margaritas, and they were still going strong. Alcohol like this was nothing.

The parties at night were beginning to get repetitive, and he didn't really know what to do. He was with Tenten, which was all that he really needed, but he felt like he was being boring. What were they going to do for this party?

"Let's see if we can start a game of chicken!" Tenten grabbed tight to Neji's hand, dragging him forward slightly. In complete confusion, Neji watched her grow from placid to extreme excitement, all within the blink of an eye. Perhaps the alcohol was beginning to take its toll on her. As for her request: he wasn't entirely sure what she was talking about.

"What is 'chicken'?" he asked, and her jaw dropped in complete and utter dumbfound. Her short locks were brushed over her shoulder by a gentle breath of night breeze, and the bruises on her throat were exposed. Her eyes glittered impulsively as she stared up into his perplexed countenance.

"You've _never_ played chicken?!" Tenten gasped, and Neji shook his head, almost grinning at his beautiful date. It didn't really matter that he didn't know what it was; if she wanted to play this game, then he would play it with her. Hell, if this woman jumped off a bridge, he'd follow her course of action. He would follow her to the ends of the earth, even if he had to walk barefoot across a thousand miles of glass. "You must have had a terrible childhood," she said jokingly, and while a part of him took it as a joke, the other agreed with the literal sense.

"In comparison to these past few days - since I met you -" he began, taking both of her hands into his grasp and gazing down into her chocolate irises, "my life was terrible."

The left side of Tenten's mouth pulled upward and her right eyebrow raised on her forehead. With a flick of her tongue, she licked her lips in the most unintentionally seductive way a woman could, and he was completely turned on. While Neji kept a decent hold on himself to prevent his body from reacting to the indirect stimulation, he could still feel the desire to take Tenten. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his entire life, and the thought of her being all his continued to make his head spin again and again.

Tenten took a step closer towards Neji and propelled herself onto her tiptoes, lifting herself up to proximity of his ear. "When you say things like that," she said, her voice shaking the hormones in his body, "it makes me want to ravage you."

"I won't stop you if you try," he winked, and something in Tenten's eyes changed. In fact, her entire face fell, as if her muscles completely grew limp. She blinked a few times, almost as if she were attempting to regain consciousness from a moment of spacing out. "Tenten?" Neji called out to her, holding her forearms firmly before she turned away from Neji and sprinted over to the guard rail along the side of the ship. She grasped it with a full hold - her fingers curling tight enough to tremble - and threw her torso over the edge. Heaving violently, she threw up the lunch that she had eaten today, along with the quite minimal amount of alcohol that she had consumed.

The pain that writhed in her gut twisted and turned, tying itself into a thick knot. With an attempt to breathe in the salty air around her, Tenten choked out almost embarrassingly. It felt as if she was on the verge of swallowing her own tongue, and while the instant torture plagued her, she knew that it would eventually come to a pass.

Neji rushed after his lover, coming within a two-feet radius of her, but not wanting to smother her. Rather, he reached out and grasped the short locks that she had left down at her shoulders, tugging them back gingerly and holding them out of the cross-fire. He could feel eyes of some of their fellow passengers digging into their backs as they watched Tenten feed the fish below them.

He took a single hand and ran it up and down the length of her back in a desperate endeavor to soothe her. The surface of her flesh felt extremely hot under his touch, yet a layer of goosebumps formed beneath the tips of his fingers. An immediate wave of concern smashed over him and he fretted over her health.

"What can I do for you?" he asked her as the nausea punched Tenten in the abdomen again, forcing the contents of her stomach to race up her esophagus. Her body heaved forward, trying with no avail to rid itself of the sickness. "You feel hot."

"I'm sorry," she apologized in between gasps for air. "I think I need to go lay down." Tenten stood up straight and turned around, resting her lower back on the rail and throwing her head backwards into the night sky. Beads of sweat precipitated down her forehead as her eyelids fluttered shut.

Neji moved his feet quickly to cover the distance between their bodies, and he constricted an arm around her waist. He allowed her to drape her arm over his shoulders, and he was prepared to carry both of their weight back to the cabin that they shared.

"Please, don't apologize," he begged of her as he started walking, her feet trudging along with him. He hoped that this was just a fluke, and not something like food poisoning. That would be absolutely terrible, and they would probably need to get to a doctor right away.

_Don't be panicking yet, Neji_, he told himself as they gradually made their way along the side of the ship, pushing past intoxicated people who were too drunk to see the sickened girl coming. While he knew that the cause of her nausea wasn't solely reflected on the alcohol - he could be certain of this, especially after drinking with her that first night - he couldn't reason out the idea that drinking helped in triggering her sickness.

When they came to the stairs, Neji took on most of her weight and ascended, dragging her limp body along with him. Her eyes were hazy, and it looked as if she was borderline unconscious. Had it not been for her breathing in his ear, he would have become hysterical. For some reason that he could not explain, his mind flickered to all of the worst possibilities, and his heart was stabbed with every single terrible outcome.

Neji dragged Tenten through the hallway, almost running into Shizune, who blinked when she saw the two. For a moment, he was surprised when a flash of concern flickered across her face. She threw away her jealousy, and a genuine passion for helping people came over her.

"Is she okay?" she asked, watching closely as Tenten brought a weak hand to her forehead and scrunched her eyebrows.

"She's not feeling well," Neji replied for his dear lover, who he figured was too out of it to speak.

"Too much alcohol, perhaps?" Shizune suggested, throwing her hands onto her bare hips nonchalantly. Her dark eyes flickered away from the perspiring face of the woman that she lost Neji to. They pinned down on him, watching him as he opened his mouth to speak.

"I don't think the alcohol they serve here would ever push her over her limits."

"Oh. Well I hope she feels better," Shizune said with an honest compassion as she smiled and continued on her way towards the party. Neji was almost too shocked to say anything back to her, and instead he returned to his trek to the cabin that he had rented for the week. He fished the key out of his pocket, so that the moment he stepped in front of the door, he could unlock it.

"Neji, I..." she said quickly before throwing her hand over her mouth. Her torso heaved, and he knew exactly what was happening. Quickly, he opened the door and allowed her to run through with a sudden burst of urgent strength. Her beeline to the bathroom was quick, and he wasn't entirely sure that she was going to make it. However, when he glanced into the bathroom and saw her crumpled on the floor like an unwanted scrap of paper, he saw that she was able to hold it long enough. She vomited violently into the toilet, choking on the hydrochloric acid that burned her esophagus.

Neji's eyebrows furrowed and his eyes squeezed shut as he closed the door. Tossing the card key on to Natsumi's neatly-made bed, he moved towards the bathroom door and folded his arms, leaning in the doorway.

"What can I do for you?" he asked her, biting his lip in angst for her sudden violent sickness. He listened in agony as she heaved once more and sucked in a breath, coughing out loud into the bowl of the toilet. Her hands clutched the throne, embracing it as if for comfort.

"Kill me," she choked out. "that would be nice."

"I'm going to go down to the bar to see if they have anything that will help you. If I see my mom, I'll ask if she brought anything along that will calm your stomach." Neji reluctantly turned for the door as another surge of suffocation came from the throat of his dear. "Will you be okay until I get back?"

Tenten released her grip on the circumference of the toilet and her body relaxed for a moment. That solitary moment of peace didn't last long, for a wave of nausea tsunamied over her and she threw her face back into the bowl. She didn't know how she could still be vomiting, because the contents of her stomach had been eradicated two rounds ago. Oh, the torture. The acid burned her throat and opened up the cells inside her mouth, creating a stale and lingering taste within her. When she felt as though this wave was finished, she opened her mouth to reply to the beautiful man who was willing to drop everything to help her.

"Yeah, 'cause I think I'll be dead."

Neji's eyebrows furrowed as he grabbed his keycard from off of the counter's miraculously clean surface.

"Please don't die," he said when he grabbed the doorknob and opened the wooden door. He glanced back into the bathroom and watched as she laid her cheek on the seat, which he assumed felt extremely cool to her scorching face. "I'll be right back. I love you."

Neji rushed out of the room, knowing that the sooner he left, the sooner he could get back to her and take care of her. He hoped - he prayed to God and to the heavens - that this was nothing serious. If it was food poisoning, he didn't know how he would be able to get her medical help, since the ship was not destined to hit land for another two days. It was only Monday, in the wee hours of the morning, and they were not supposed to meet land until Wednesday.

Biting his lip in extreme nervousness, Neji found himself almost sprinting down the hallway, unconsciously. He caught himself, forcing his legs to calm down. Everything was going to be okay, as long as he remained calm, cool, and collected. He was well aware that him panicking was not going to help the situation, and it most certainly was not going to cure Tenten.

Neji stopped for a minute and closed his eyes while he took in a deep, soothing breath. He didn't know why he was panicking; perhaps it was because Tenten was the first person that he ever felt a real connection to, and the thought of her being hurt or in pain scared him. That was the curse that love set in him: it made him weak for her. The strength that he had spent so many years building up was gone. Years and years he had spent, constructing a wall between himself and the world, and within a matter of days, she had smashed through it like a beautiful maniac. All that fortitude was gone, leaving him exposed to the universe and all of its inhabitants.

Yet at the same time, she gave him all of the strength that he ever needed. If he had to step between her and a bullet, he knew that he would do it automatically, without any second thought. It was so crazy: five days ago, he didn't even know that Tenten Akiyama walked the earth. Today, he was prepared to give his life for her.

Neji opened his eyes and stared down the wooden steps, preparing himself for the decent. His feet moved by themselves, carrying his weight down the stairs. The air on his skin was refreshing, and it wasn't until this time that he realized that he, too, was sweating. The back of his neck was warm, and when the breeze tossed his tresses over his shoulders, his cells gasped out in a hallelujah chorus.

The moment his Marcato's hit the ground deck, his legs carried him around to the side of the ship, where he dodged the increasingly intoxicated passengers. He caught sight of Karin and a man that he had never seen before, her back against a wall and his arm above her as he leaned down. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was succeeding in seducing the man with her skin exposed. He hoped that the walls were thick enough between the hallways and that he wouldn't be disturbed by any amorous activities that would happen across the hall.

He forced his eyes to the front, as so not to make eye contact with her while she let her hormones take over her actions. Scanning the people, he searched for either his mother or the silver mop that belonged to Kakashi. He wasn't entirely sure if they would still be out on the "town" or if they would have retired to his cabin for the night - or morning. Swiftly, he changed the course of his thoughts, not wanting to know what his mother was doing when the sun set.

When he reached the bow, he made a direct line to the bar, moving to the right side of a man who slouched over the surface. His thick, bowl-shaped hair was ruffled in between the fingers of his left hand, and his cheeks were flushed from the alcohol.

Neji leaned onto the bar and waited for the curvy bartender to turn around and tend to his questions and requests. Being stationary caused his nervousness to come back, and his thumbs unwillingly tapped against the wooden surface of the bar. He bit his lip while he waited, and he couldn't help but notice that the only other person at the bar - the man with the helmet hair - seemed depressed. He wondered what happened to the stranger that would cause him to be so down. With the atmosphere of the party and the cruise itself, how could someone find time to feel sad?

The lion-headed bartender turned around with a large, green-tinted mixed drink and set it in front of the distressed man. Her hazel eyes flickered to Neji, and she flashed a rehearsed smile at him.

"What can I get for you, dear?" she asked, and he could tell that this was the millionth time she had said that line in the past week.

"Do you have anything that would help with vomiting?" he questioned, his face twisting with his interrogation.

"Are you okay?" she asked again, this time her question in genuine concern for the health of the ship's guest.

"I'm fine," he said, shaking his head. "It's my-" what was he supposed to call her? They hadn't declared themselves officially boyfriend and girlfriend, and they technically haven't had a first date. All that happened was they fell in love and had sex. What do you call that? "-lover. She suddenly started vomiting badly."

"I can give you a few cans of Coke and some crackers," she offered, reaching under the counter and pulling out three cans of cola and a box of saltines. "That's about all that I have that will help soothe her stomach."

Neji shoved the box of crackers under his arm and retrieved the three cans of soda, an honest smile of thanks spreading across his cheeks.

"Thank you so much." He turned away, but the depressed man to his left spoke up just as he was ready to leave.

"Take care of her," he muttered, and Neji glanced over his shoulder to watch as the man turned his round eyes to him. Immediately, Neji's attention was drawn to the overly thick eyebrows that stuck out on the man's lower forehead. "Do not ever let her go. Women can change their mind within the course of the day. Do not give her the chance to stop loving you."

Neji blinked as he absorbed the words that the bushy browed guy told him. Once the words and their message sunk in, he took in the situation around him, and began putting the pieces of the puzzle together: the lonely young man who should be partying with the rest of the people on the ship; talking as if he had just been broken up with.

Was this the man...? This was the ex fiancé of his current and one-and-only lover.

Neji bit his lip and felt the need to apologize to the man who he figured was Lee, but he couldn't seem to push the words out of his mouth. Instead, he nodded and thanked him for the advice, then turned and power walked back in the direction from which he had come.

_That_ was the man that Tenten had been engaged to before he met her. He was the whole reason that Tenten was even on this ship, and so he was the reason that Neji ever met the woman of his dreams. A part of him wanted to run back to Lee and thank him for bringing the goddess into his life, but another part wanted to apologize for stealing her from him.

However, in actuality, he could do neither. The only thing he could do was continue on his trek back to his lover, who was probably still heaving in pain.

_Thank you, Lee, _Neji's thoughts murmured in candid appreciation for the other man. _I'm so sorry._


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter Fourteen_

Neji struggled to open his eyes, and he felt a pain in his lower back as his body began moving on its own. In momentary disorientation, he glanced around the room, not quite remembering exactly where he was and how he got there. His body lay crunched up on the floor, folded in half and abandoned. Blinking once, he turned his attention to the beds that stood before him, both made and unslept in.

It was then that he realized that he was sleeping on the floor in front of the door for a reason, and he rolled over to face the bathroom. Tenten was passed out on the floor, her legs partially wrapped around the base of the toilet. Her right arm served an alternative purpose as a makeshift pillow for her head, and her left hand was curled into a ball, pressing down unconsciously on the tiles.

Her skin looked very pale to him, and he wondered if the nausea had finally passed, or if she had just recently fallen asleep with her stomach still acrobating. The hair that hung across her face was tired and limp, and it was easy to tell that she had been sweating.

Neji propped himself up on a single elbow and wiped the fatigue from his face, checking his watch in the same instant. Not only had they slept through breakfast today, they were also knocked out through the scheduled lunch time. That was highly unnatural. How many hours of sleep was that? Even if he wanted to calculate it, he didn't know when he fell asleep, or even around the time. He was so concerned with providing Tenten with everything that she needed, that the world around him just seemed to disappear. She was all that mattered.

With a flick of his wrist, he threw the dark hair that hung over his shoulder behind him, airing the side of his neck. He really didn't know what he was supposed to do right now; until Tenten woke up, he didn't want to leave the cabin room, just in case she awakened and needed something. But he couldn't really take a shower while she was comatose on the bathroom floor. Perhaps he could move her to the bed, where she would probably achieve a more comfortable and restful sleep. That might be a good idea.

Taking in a deep breath, Neji extended the length of his body, shoving his arms over his head and pointing his toes towards the opposing wall. The sensation of expansion sent a thrill of ecstasy down his spine, and he rotated his head in a three-sixty, his vertebral canal cracking. Really and truly, there was nothing that could compare to the feel of a long, full-body stretch in the morning...or afternoon. His muscles cried out in bliss, only to be recompressed as he brought his knees closer to his chest in an attempt to stand up. Once on his feet, he threw his arms up over his head a second time and arched his back, stretching out the vertebrae of his spine.

The breath that he had taken in to his lungs was released in a gradual exhale, satisfaction dispersing into the air around him. His eyes fell to the floor, caressing his exhausted lover with such tender affection. A part of him wanted to leave her there in peace and not risk waking her, but he knew that it would probably be in her best interest to continue sleeping in the comfort of a bed.

His feet dragged quietly along the floorboards, his favorite Marcatos gliding with ease. As he grew closer and closer to her, he could hear her breathing almost inaudibly, much to his relief, and her chest visibly moved up and down ever so softly. Truly, though, she did look rough, and her struggle last night was evident within her pores.

Even still, she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Neji bent down, touching a single knee to the sub-zero tile floor in proximity to the base of Tenten's neck. Very cautiously, he reached out to her, pressing one light hand to the nape of her neck, and the other caressed the curves of the back of her thighs. It was then at that moment that he realized that she was soft; she put on a façade of a strong and unbreakable person, but when it came down to it, she was a fragile human being.

Tugging her body close to his, Neji used the muscles in his legs to toss himself back to his feet, supporting both his weight and the weight of his flame. Turning around, oh-so careful not to bump Tenten's head against the wall, Neji snaked his way back into the main cabin area, where there were no obstacles on the main course to hinder his race. The minute heels of his shoes clicked lightly across the wooden planks, scuffing only the two few times he accidently dragged his feet. Moving as fluidly as he possibly could, Neji floated to the bed that he had claimed for the trip, and he gingerly laid Tenten down on the unwrinkled comforter. She didn't stir, but he watched as her eyes rolled around in their sockets as she dreamed the day away.

As long as she was content, so was he.

With one of the four thick pillows that coated the head of the bed, Neji propped the back of her head up delicately. A deep breath escaped her nostrils as the comfort overtook her body, and unconsciously, she rolled over to her side, cuddling a second pillow. Her knees drifted up to her chest, and she slept in a loose fetal position.

With a complacent sigh, Neji forced himself away from the woman who was dead asleep, relieved that her stomach had quit churning. It was a terrible way to spend the night, especially seeming how they were on vacation. Hopefully, though, her sickness had passed, and she could just rest for the day. He didn't mind if they stayed in the cabin room all day; as long as he was with her, he couldn't ask for anything else.

Reluctantly leaving her side, Neji kneeled down to his suitcase, where he sorted through the clothes that he had packed. He ripped out a snow-white button-down shirt with a pair of dark blue denim jeans and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. Throwing his clothes on the sink's counter, he bent down to pick up the single empty soda can, tossing it into the wastebasket under the sink. The two other unopened cans, he moved to the counter, along with the box of crackers. She had hardly touched any of it, which he didn't blame her for. Hell, he didn't even know if she even had time to consume anything before passing out. Though perhaps that empty can of soda helped to soothe her stomach, if only a little bit.

Neji fingered the buttons of his shirt, unlatching them from the hole on the other side and working his way down his torso. The pure cotton under his fingertips was downy, and it brushed along his arms as he slipped out of his shirt. It fluttered to the floor practically inaudibly, careful not to make a racket that would awaken the sleeping woman in the other room. Swiftly, he unbuttoned the loose jeans that hung around his hips and allowed them to plummet to the floor. Using only his thumbs, he slipped out of his boxer briefs and tossed them to the pile of dirty clothes on the floor.

Shoving the curtains out of the way, Neji stepped into the shower stall and reached down for the faucet, flipping the hot water on full blast. A waterfall poured down on his head, saturating and matting his lengthy locks down. For a moment, he stayed under the rain and reflected on everything that was happening in his life.

Tenten; he couldn't be happier that she was in his life, and he couldn't help but wonder what they were going to do, come Wednesday when they reach land. Would she come with him and live with him at his house, or would she stay at her own home? If she had been living with her ex fiancé, then she would have to go through the awkwardness of returning to his place to get her belongings. Of course, Neji would go with her, and he would help gather her things and carry them to his Camaro. Lee wouldn't be happy about that aspect, of coming face to face with the man who stole his fiancé out from under his nose.

His mind began to wander without his permission, and for reasons that he could not explain, he thought about the man who he inferred was Lee. He appeared to be completely depressed, and Neji wondered if it was a disaster inside of his mind right now. He couldn't help but wonder what Lee would have done if he would have known just who he was talking to last night, who he had given relationship advice to.

Had Lee known that he was talking to the winner of the ultimate prize, - Tenten - a fight would have probably broken out. If Lee would have hit him, would Neji be able to bring himself to strike Lee back? After all, it was because of him that Lee lost his lover, and he probably had a lot of pent up anger inside of him. Surely, Neji was willing to take as many punches necessary for Lee to have closure; whether or not he would throw a fist back, he couldn't say.

And Tenten; how would she react if the man that she once loved and her current lover were battling it out? Of course, she was used to fights between men; she told him so. She grew up with three older brothers, and so she knew that, by nature, men stooped to violence to solve their problems.

"_Sometimes,"_ her voice rang inside his brain, _"men just have to duke it out, y'know?"_

Was that necessarily true? Neji couldn't remember a time in the past that he had it out with another guy - except for the times when guys that went to school with Hinata started picking on her. But that was so long ago; she had only been ten when that happened. That was probably nothing compared to a fight between grown men battling over a woman.

Neji wasn't underestimating his possible opponent, but at the same time, he was not doubting his own physical skills. The only thing he was really concerned about was Tenten, and how she would feel about the two men fighting over her. She wasn't like all of the other girls who wanted to have guys playing a vicious battle of tug-of-war over her; she knew what she wanted, and she embraced it. As far as the facts presented thus far, she wanted Neji, and nothing could make him happier. Quite honestly, he didn't really feel guilty until meeting Lee face-to-face last night at the bar. He had been so down just knowing that he lost Tenten to another man; how would he react if he found out that they had already physically embraced?

Neji sighed, attempting to throw his thoughts down the drain with the water that streamed down the surface of his flesh. He knew exactly where his mind would wander next, with the previous thought in mind, and he couldn't let himself lose control of his body; not while Tenten was violently sick and needing him to care for her.

He reached toward the shelf to grab his shampoo, and as he did so, flashbacks of their erotic night came back to him, and he couldn't help but smile. It was crazy, when he really thought about it. Here were two people who hadn't known each other for more than three days, and they had made such a sweet love, over and over and over again as the night went on. It was almost funny; he always wondered who he would lose his virginity to, but when he thought about it, he didn't know what type of girl that he really wanted. All of the ones that he had met in his life were so focused on how thin they were, or how long their hair was. These superficial qualities that he cared nothing about, the women that walked in and out of his life were obsessed with. But Tenten...she couldn't give a damn if her hair reached her hips or her ears. She didn't seem like one that would care if she put on a few pounds - which she wouldn't have to worry about, seeming how athletic she is. She's just Tenten, and that - he believed - was what initially attracted him to her.

No, if he said that, he would be blatantly lying to himself. The thing that made him curious about her, first and foremost, were her big brown eyes. He remembered, the moment her head had broken the surface of the water, he thought nothing of it, and so he held his hand out to her to pull her out of the pool. However, when her eyes traced up his arm and they met face-to-face for the first time, he remembered drowning in a sea of emotions that he had never felt before. The moment their eyes connected, he felt it - despite the fact that, at the time, he didn't know what "it" was.

He felt highly hypocritical in the fact that, going through his entire life, he did not believe in love at all, let alone believe in love at first sight. In his mind, the whole aspects of star crossed lovers and soul mates were just a bunch of hokum. God, was he completely wrong. Tenten _was_ his kindred spirit, and she had came into his life within a blink of an eye. Now all he had to do was pray that she didn't walk right back out and leave him.

_Neji_, his conscience rang out to him, _you sound like an anxious girl right now. You almost sound like Hinata, worrying about trivial things like this._

While there was some truth in the voice of his mind, there was also just as much false. In a sense, he was acting like his younger cousin, who was nervous about most things, especially when it came to social interaction with other people. However, the thing that he was concerning himself over was not trivial - the Neji that existed four days ago would have thought it so, though. He was unquestionably in love with Tenten, and hopelessly pondering the details of what his life had morphed into. There was nothing that could make that false.

OoO

Tenten slept soundly most of the day, her stomach seeming to leave her alone while she recuperated. Neji checked on her every hour on the hour to make sure that she was breathing naturally and not sweating or shivering. Never once did he leave the cabin room, for fear that she would awaken and need something from him. It was a small price to pay for the well being of his dear lover.

Instead of exploring the ship, he lounged in the cabin, replying to the unread text messages from his friends and cousin back on land. Hinata couldn't wait to meet the girl that he had found on this vacation, and she continued to play twenty questions, trying to figure out who Tenten was as a person, inside and out.

Finally, text messages were not enough for communication, and she gave in and called him. His phone had been on vibrate since he met Tenten, because he didn't want to be distracted by the ringing of his phone. He wanted all of his attention to be given to the angel before him.

Neji slid his finger across the screen of his phone to connect him to his cousin, then pressed the flat, lightweight brick to his ear.

"You're just going to have to wait and meet her when we get back on Wednesday," he said, forsaking the greeting to his younger cousin.

"Don't get mad at me for being curious," she scolded him lightly. Their relationship had really grown strong since they were kids. Instead of acting like protector and protectee, they defended one another as both friends and family. He had gained so much respect for her when they had hit adolescence, and when she initially found herself in the pursuit of love, he couldn't help but feel like an older brother to her. If that blonde boy that she had her sights set on tried anything on her, there would be hell to pay. Speaking of which, he wondered if she had given up on him.

"I can't," he admitted, reclining himself on the surface of Natsumi's bed, resting his back against the mountain of pillows. "I think you'll like her, though. She seemed to know who you were. I think she went to the same school as that boy that you used to like."

"Oh really?" she pondered, and he could almost see her face boil red at the mention of her high school dear.

"Whatever happened to him?" Neji asked, regarding the blonde boy that Hinata used to fall head over heels for. He knew that when she and her family moved away, she was highly upset about having to leave him.

"Oh, um..." Hinata stuttered on her end of the phone before growing quiet, and Neji raised an eyebrow, waiting for her response. "Naruto suddenly appeared outside of the doorstep in Hokkaido. I was so surprised to see him that I didn't even have time to faint before he explained himself," she confessed, and Neji could feel the overprotectiveness rising in his blood, and he waited for her to give him the story. Although, he would have to say, he was surprised that he hadn't heard about this sooner. "He came to my house by himself, and it had to have been eleven o'clock at night when there was a knock on my door. Hanabi and I were up watching a movie, and I lost 'nose-goes,' so I had to answer the door. When I opened the front door and saw Naruto, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

"He told me that he didn't realize how much he would miss me until I was actually gone, and he was willing to move out of Konoha and to Hokkaido if I told him that I loved him."

"And?" Neji asked, though feeling almost silly for having to ask the most obvious question. "Did you confess your love to him?"

"I already confessed before I left Konoha," she told him. "But that night, if we could be together, I was willing to do anything. So I told him the emotions that radiated from the bottom of my heart. I told him that I loved him."

Neji bit his lip in concern. "You guys haven't...well...?" How could he possibly come out and say it? It was only until two days ago that he had done it, himself, with a girl that he had only just met and fell for. Hinata, on the other hand, had known Naruto for so long, and she had been in love with him since the very first day she met him. While he had no right to judge or complain, he did know the deceitful tricks that guys could play to have sex.

Hinata laughed nervously. "No, we haven't gone that far. Our relationship only just began."

Neji sighed in relief, but his eyes turned and locked onto Tenten's sleeping face. His mind flickered back a few nights ago, and he remembered how beautiful and how sensual she appeared to be as they moved simultaneously against one another. It was almost impossible to keep himself from thinking about the greatest night of his life. He doubted that any other event could exceed the greatness of that night; at least, if their relationship lasted, not until the day of their wedding and the day their children are born. He knew that mentioning those two events would be rushing things, and for the first time in his life, he didn't want to rush; instead, he wanted to take the time to smell the roses. As long as he had Tenten, that greatest night of his life would not be just a mere memory, but a reality. And seeing her smile...he could settle with that until the day she says "I do."


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter Fifteen_

Tenten squeezed her eyes closed tightly as she felt herself drifting upwards through the stages of sleep. Her face pressed against something soft, and her eyebrows furrowed, recalling vaguely the events before she had lost consciousness. If she remembered correctly, she had blacked out on the bathroom floor after hours of continuous torture and vomiting. The floor below her should be cold and hard, but instead it was warm and plush.

Reluctantly, she forced her eyes to peak open at the darkness that shrouded her. Pumping music played outside on the deck, and the night was continuing to rage on. So she hadn't slept for more than a few minutes, if not an hour, right? Her sight became clearer as her eyes adjusted to the room around her, taking in the patterns of light that would create images inside her brain.

On the other bed in the room, she saw her dear lover fast asleep, still dressed in jeans and a button down shirt. His long tresses lay scattered across the pillow, looking like a beautiful garden of chocolate seaweed. It seemed as if - she couldn't entirely tell through the darkness - that he washed of the makeup that matted his forehead, exposing his scar to the world inside of the cabin room. In all honesty, there was no sight that was more pulchritudinous, his face completely placid while his body lay limp on the comforter of Natsumi's bed.

She couldn't help but wonder if he was dreaming, and if he was, what it was that filled his mind as he slumbered. Did he have dreams about his friends and family back in Konoha, or did he have nightmares concerning his father's murder? She hoped that he was not suffering inside of REM, that his unconscious thoughts were filled with happy things. He had plenty of aspects of his life that he should be thankful for. His family has money, he has a healthy relationship with his cousin and with his friends that he told her about. He has his mother, who seems as though she cares about Neji so much. And, not to be conceited, but he as her; Tenten wanted to believe that he felt just as lucky to have her as she felt about having him in her life. This newfound relationship was the greatest thing that ever happened to her.

From on the floor, Neji's expensive cell phone vibrated quickly from on the floor, but he didn't look phased in the least. He was probably too far gone in REM to hear it, even if he wanted to. Tenten rolled over to the edge of the bed and stretched her arm out to grab the phone, constricting her small fingers around its body gingerly. Without bringing it up to her face, she unlocked the screen and glanced at the text message from Tsunade. She tried so hard not to be nosy, but she couldn't help but to read the text anyway.

_Y'know, with you on that cruise and Asuma constantly with Kurenai, it's been pretty quiet here. Hopefully Dan comes back from Osaka soon._

Poor woman. Tenten bit her lip, wondering if she would make friends with Tsunade and Asuma. She could only hope so, especially since they were Neji's friends; she so desperately hoped that they would accept her. Maybe it would be fun to go out with all of them together: herself and Neji, Asuma and Kurenai, Tsunade and Dan. Really and truly, that would be great.

Before she set the phone back on the floor, her eyes happened to graze across the date and time, which was the bearer of the news; she had been unconscious for about twenty four hours. It was now three o'clock, Tuesday morning. She blinked once, trying to wrap her head around the fact that she had slept away one sixth of her cruise, and she ruined Neji's day, too. He probably didn't go out, and so he most likely wandered the cabin room, attempting to find some cure to his unending boredom.

Groaning internally, Tenten rolled off of the bed and began tearing her clothes off of her body, feeling the desperate need for a shower. She hadn't bathed since Sunday morning, and she didn't want to know what she smelled like. The thought of it only made her toss her clothes on the floor faster and practically sprint to the bathroom, not bothering to grab extra clothes. Neji was asleep, and even if he did wake up, he had seen her naked before. There was no point in getting shy at this point in time.

Tenten stepped into the bathroom and shut the door silently before flicking on the light. To her right side was the giant mirror behind the sink, which showed her eyes her naked body. Nonchalantly, she glanced at the naked woman before her, examining all of the bruises that were fading away from her flesh. Neji's bite-marks across the surface of her skin caused her lips to pull upwards as the memories of that night came back to her.

Despite his being a virgin, he was pretty good. He did what no man was ever able to make her do: he forced her to cry out his name in sweet agony over and over again as her body reacted with his. She lost count of how many times she came, but whatever the number was, she swore she had double the orgasms.

Typically, inexperienced men wouldn't be able to do that for a woman, and Tenten knew that firsthand with Lee. Their first year of being in a relationship was a working progress, and it took him so long to memories what to do and when. But Neji...it was like there was some kind of sexual intuition happening. She didn't have to tell him anything, yet he got everything right. This reinforced her belief that they were made for each other, and put in this world so that they could meet and fall in love. Even though fate was something that she really didn't believe in, she couldn't help but wonder if this was it.

With a sigh, Tenten turned to the shower and stepped into the stall, dragging the curtains across their bar. She yanked the faucet, forcing the water to spew at her at top speeds, and she cranked it all the way to the left, causing steam to fill the closed bathroom rather hastily. The thermal water vapor that shrouded her enveloped her skin, kissing every portion of her flesh passionately, ridding her pores of all negativity. The affair filled her lungs with lust, and her hormones raged as she thought about her lover.

She was going to have to make it up to him, for ruining his Monday, yesterday. It was only fair that she sacrifice her body to him. He could have her anywhere he wanted, and he could do whatever he so desired.

Tenten bit her lip as her thoughts began to race. She had enough control over her body to reach to the rack and grab the shampoo that Natsumi used, however the warm sensation in her lower body pulsed while she lathered her hair. The suds raced down the sides of her face and was pushed by gravity to flow down her neck and create streaks down her breasts. Quickly enough, they met their end the moment they touched the floor of the shower, where the water beat them down and sent them with a one-way ticket towards the drain.

Tenten ran her fingers through her sopping wet mass of hair, attempting to untangle it as she lathered. Her poor mop went through so much torture when it wasn't tied into a bun or a ponytail. Between Sunday and the wee hours of Monday morning, they had gone through such torturous wind damage, constantly being whipped back and forth. Then they had to go through the possibility of a hydrochloric splash zone for when she was for hours on end. The strands certainly weren't used to such vigorous activity and excitement, and now they gave her payback by clinging together and being unruly.

Giving up on the locks of hair for the moment, Tenten massaged the soap into her scalp with her fingertips, cleaning away the natural oils that her body produced while she perspired and slept. As she did so, the hot water that poured out of the spicket pooled down her chest and stomach, warming her body in its entirety. The suds that glided down her chest caused goosebumps to arise on her epidermis, despite the temperature of the water that continued to pour upon her. She turned around and threw her head back, allowing the streams of water to wash away both the soap and the oil that sat in high concentration in the curls of her hair.

Her mind couldn't help but wonder what Lee was doing right now. She hadn't seen him since she had broken it off and returned the diamond ring that he had placed on her left ring finger. Despite the fact that they were no longer engaged to one another, she was still concerned for his wellbeing. Before they were engaged, they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and before that, they were friends. That year or so of friendship was not something that she could just ignore in her heart, and so she couldn't help but be concerned with how he was doing. She could only hope that he hadn't kept himself locked up in that tiny cabin room by himself. Maybe he met another girl; she would be so happy for him if he did. If he had found another girl, then she wouldn't have to worry about his being lonely or - depending on the girl - sexually deprived.

It was better this way; Tenten was able to pursue a happy life with the man of her dreams, with her knight in shining armor, and Lee was free to find his princess.

"_I did,"_ his quivering voice rang inside of her brain, causing her eyes to squeeze shut and her muscles to tighten. _"I found you. I chased after you. I made you fall in love with me. I have made you scream my name, over and over again."_

"I'm not your princess, Lee," Tenten whispered into the waterfall that rained down over her. While she couldn't deny that anything he said was false, she also couldn't deny the fact that she belonged with Neji. They were perfect for each other in every way possible. Physically, mentally, and emotionally, they were two pieces of the same puzzle that were supposed to snap together. They were separated from one another, lost amongst the crowd of unpaired puzzle pieces; they've tried time and time again to fit with the other pieces, but nothing they tried could have ever worked. They were made for one another, and only for one another.

It was only Neji that she had been searching for her entire life. Any time she thought she found the man that she was going to settle for, the fate of meeting Neji tore her and the other man apart, and she continued on her trek to find him. It was always the chemistry; her soul was attracted to him and only him, and it was as if she was the electron, while he was the proton. No matter the distance, she would always feel the tug he had on her, and so she would always follow the instinct. If they were separated, he wouldn't have to do so much as whisper her name, and she would come running.

Tenten squirted a handful of conditioner into her palm and slapped it onto her crown, smoothing it first onto the top layer of her hair before meshing it into each and every strand. The instant hydration to her tresses seemed to relax them and forced them to cooperate and untangle. In cooperation, they quit clinging to one another in a nest of knots, unraveling at the touch of her fingers.

Neji...now that she knew that he existed and walked the earth, there was no way she could possibly settle for any other man. The man of her dreams was in existence. There was no denying it. Fatefully, they met and fell in love, and now here she is, practically blushing at the thought of him while she stood completely naked in his bathroom.

Tenten took in a breath of thick, steamy air and tilted her head under the water again to rinse the silky lather from her locks. She didn't know how long she had been in the shower, wasting water and thinking of Neji. And she still had to take a razor over her legs quickly.

_Get to it, Akiyama,_ she told herself as she reached for the razor that she had tossed into the shower when she initially moved in to this cabin. Quite skillfully and with many years of practice, she dragged the blades over her flesh, making her skin silky smooth. Before abandoning it, she lathered her hand with conditioner and coated herself before cautiously running the edges of the sharp instrument over her nether region.

Tenten twisted around in the stream of water, giving her body a final rinse before jamming the knob of the faucet downwards. She balled her hair up behind her head as if she were about to tie it into a ponytail, and she squeezed the liquid from her curls. A gallon of water was wrung from her hair, plummeting to her feet and the floor below her. Flipping her mop around to a single side she constricted her fingers around the short length and twisted, unleashing another quart.

After shaking excess water from her limbs, Tenten flung open the curtain and stepped out of the shower stall, reaching for a towel that lay in soft and silent slumber on the sink's counter. Her eyes took notice to the cans of soda and the saltines.

So Neji cleaned up her mess, too? That boy was a saint.

Tenten took notice of her toothbrush and figured it wise to take it over her mouth before leaving the bathroom. She had gone almost forty eight hours without brushing her teeth, and that was just disgusting. Not to mention all the hell they went through with the anti-soothing hydrochloric acid bath.

She untwisted the cap of the toothpaste and squirted a heavy amount on the soft bristles of her toothbrush and swiftly jammed it into her mouth, scrubbing away any grime that had built up since their last cleaning. As the bacteria was liberated from her mouth, she could feel every cell gasp out a sigh of relief. The sensation of mint could never taste so good as it did now.

Spitting into the sink and rinsing her mouth, Tenten grinned into the mirror, checking to make sure she didn't miss anything. It was only when she was completely satisfied that she decided she could leave the solitude of the bathroom.

Tenten ripped a towel off of the pile and wrapped it around herself before reaching out for the doorknob, of which she twisted lightly and used to anchor the door open. Cautiously, as so not to awaken the sleeping angel in the room, Tenten slid her bare feet across the wooden floor, her target being her suitcase in between the two beds. Falling to her knees, she blindedly searched for a white beater and athletic shorts when she heard the bed to her left rustle with movement.

"How are you feeling?" Neji's voice sounded, startling her. Her head snapped up to meet the whites of his eyes, still at the head of the bed. He was propped up on his elbow and awaiting a response to his question.

"A lot better, actually," she commented, abandoning her exploration for lazy clothes. Instead, she sit on the floor on her knees, watching as her lover pulled himself off of his side and crawled to the foot of the bed, meeting Tenten face-to-face. "Although, I have to say, I am quite angry for having missed the entire Monday. And I'm so sorry for ruining your day, as well."

"What are you talking about?" he asked her, flopping down onto his stomach and giving her an honest smile. "I stayed here with you because I wanted to, not because I felt I had to. I wanted to be here for you in case you needed anything."

"But you had to have been bored, y'know. There's not much in this room to do."

"I actually talked to Hinata on the phone most of the day," Neji said, gazing into the eyes of his beloved. "I don't get to actually talk to her that much since she moved away. I found out today that the boy she's in love with chased her to Hokkaido and now they're a couple."

Tenten laughed. "That's so cute! Good for them!" she said before becoming trapped in Neji's eyes. Before she knew it, she was leaning in closely, and soon enough, her lips were pressed to his and his hands caressed the sides of her neck. She couldn't help her own hands from moving up and pressing themselves over his, holding him warmly. Her lips parted, allowing his tongue access to hers, where they met and danced formally, having not been in contact in what felt like a hundred years.

The towel that acted as the only barrier between her body and the world fell down her torso and collapsed onto her thighs, exposing her breasts to Neji. Her hands traveled up his firm arms, gliding across his biceps and deltoids, and she gripped the collar of his shirt. With trembling muscles, she fought the urge to tug him off of the bed and onto her body, had to fight against the desire to have him smash against her.

"I love you, Tenten," he murmured in between hot and passionate kisses, his grip on her flesh tightening as the sexual tension inside of his body contracted. "I love you so much."

"You have no idea," she gasped out a breath before allowing her eyes to open and gaze into his gray moons. Her head spun as the heat within the room intensified, swirling into her head with every kiss and every touch, every gasp that came from the mouths of the lovers as they attempted to catch their breath. Completely naked, Tenten pulled herself up onto the bed, smothered by Neji's embrace. His fingers glided over the flesh of her torso, the course a back and forth motion between her right hip and breast, causing goosebumps to pepper her epidermis.

Fervently, Tenten's fingers worked at the buttons that lined down Neji's chest in a frantic endeavor to remove his clothes from off of his body. His kiss against her lips made her so intoxicated that she couldn't find the specialized motor skills that she needed to undo the clasps that kept his flesh from hers. Frustrated, she was at the point of giving up and using strength to tear the delicate material off of his body.

Neji could feel her haste, and he removed his hands from her body in order to aid her in the removal of his clothes. Quite skillfully, he tore the right hemisphere of his shirt away from the left and he threw his shoulders behind him, forcing the material to fall off of his arms and collapse to the floor. So they wouldn't have to worry about dealing with it later, he unbuttoned his jeans swiftly and slithered out of them, tossing them aside without a care of where they landed. While he was at it, he slipped away from his briefs, allowing them to suffer the same fate as their predecessors.

Giving his full attention to his beautiful lover, Neji placed both hands on Tenten's hips as she crawled onto him, straddling his hips. She bowed her back as she leaned down to take his mouth into hers, her teeth nibbling on his bottom lip seductively. In a heated frenzy, Neji could feel his body reacting to her stimulus, and he couldn't stop himself from succuming to the natural action. His body tensed as every nerve cell became hypersensitive under her touch, and he wanted her. He needed to have her. It was such a craving that he needed it to a further extent than his body needed water. Right now, taking her was completely vital for his survival.

His consciousness faded away, leaving his body in control of his id, his animalistic mind. As a result, his mouth drifted away from Tenten's lips and he bit down on the side of her neck. A shot of pain coursed through her body, but the scream that emerged from her throat signalled to her lover that she needed more. Throat, breasts, thighs, abdomen; every vicious chomp left behind indentations of Neji's teeth against her flesh that would undoubtedly leave behind a bold bruise.

Tenten gave him the same dose, nibbling on his brawn almost violently and mindlessly. There was only one point to this act, and that was for each of the paramour to mark the other, claiming them as their own.

Neji flipped Tenten over onto her back and positioned his body in between her legs, knowing that he could not take it anymore. This needed to happen, and it needed to happen before both his brain and his head exploded. Tenten didn't deny him, knowing that she wouldn't be able to take much more of this foreplay. She needed him more than her cells required oxygen.

Neji thrust himself inside of her and began the ride of ecstasy that both of them so desperately needed from one another. His body moved against hers without any hesitation, and it didn't take more than a single moment for them to become synchronized. Breathing, movement, kisses...all of it was completely and one hundred percent in unison, proving their sexual intuition. A single hand reached towards the other, and fingers interlocked so tightly as the intimacy came into the physical act of sex. Their hands clenched onto one another, holding tight to each other as the heat grew and grew inside of them. Cries of unending bliss escaped from Tenten's lips as the muscles in her thighs began to contract around Neji's hips. Sweat that dripped from either body mixed with the other, creating such a concoction that could make the coldest heart fall into the bittersweet hands of love.

Tenten could feel the passion that built up within her lower body, and it seemed to have intensified from their last escapade tenfold. She didn't know how she was going to survive through this; it was as if she couldn't breathe, but the pleasure continued to pour into her with no outlet. Her mouth opened wide, and she would have expected some sort of sound - or at least a breath - to emerge from her throat. But nothing happened. Everything accumulated within her, escalating her solace to great lengths.

Neji's grip on Tenten's hand tightened almost brutally as he felt himself pulsing inside of her. His other hand caressed the curve of her back that arched towards his body, crushing herself to him. No matter where he held her, he held her so tightly, forcing their physiques closer and closer together until not even an outside atom could fit between them. A deep moan was building deep inside of his chest, radiating from his stomach, however when he went to unleash it, nothing came out. All of the passion remained inside of him, building and building until he was ready to burst at the seams. Physically, he could feel every ounce of desire as it poured into him, making his body fuller and fuller until he wasn't sure if he could hold it inside of him any longer.

Mindlessly, Tenten squeezed her walls around him, attempting to milk the sexual pressure out of him, but to no avail. Rather, she acted as a pumping action that intensified the sensation coursing through his entire body. The gasp that should have emerged from his lungs refused to come out, and it continued to build inside of him.

There was no way that she could continue on like this; Tenten was going to explode if she didn't get to release soon. It was only a matter of time before her voice came back and she screamed out her lover's name.

He needed all of the pressure inside of him to burst; the pleasure coiled up inside of him in a heavy mass. There was no way he could do it anymore, but he couldn't stop his body from thrusting deep into his inamorata. He craved her more than anything he had ever desired before. Soon enough though, his body would have to break and then he would cry out the name of the heroine below him.

Thrust after thrust after thrust, their bodies continued onwards, building the tension inside of them. The seams began to pop, and their sanity was beginning to dwindle as hormones were released into the room around them. The musky stench of sex circulated through the cabin.

All of a sudden, all of the pressure inside of them erupted and their juices mingled in a heated and sensual passion. The moment it happened, the voices of the beloved dears returned to them, and the room filled with gasps and screams. Muscles clenched so tightly for only a few moments, then relaxed, completely exhausted from the exertion. Release never felt so good.

Neji relaxed, pressing his lips down upon Tenten's, pilfering a kiss from her; not that she would resist him anyway. Their tongues stayed solitary within their respective mouths, completely fatigued from the tension. Soft lips caressed one another sensually in amore, expressing the intense love between them. They were soulmates; there was no way that they could go back to the lives they once lived. Once back on land, they were going to have to stay together, or life would be pretty rough.

Without him, Tenten's heart would surely break.

Without her, Neji wouldn't be able to live.

Together, they were completely content with undying happiness. Apart, there would be nothing but dejection.


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter Sixteen_

Neji's eyelids fluttered open and he found himself constricted in the toasty sheets of Natsumi's bed. The smell of sex continued to linger within the cabin room, filling his senses with complete satisfaction. Pressed closely against the front of his body was the back of his dear lover, who, despite having been asleep for twenty four hours, slumbered lightly. After their escapades earlier this morning, he couldn't blame her for needing more rest. It was crazy, how passionate their making love could be, while at the same time it was animalistic. They completely allowed their hormones to take over their brains, letting the sensation of sex fill their entire beings, yet in unison, their hands remained interlocked with one another.

Neji constricted his arms around Tenten and pressed his face into the nape of her neck, taking in her aroma. She stirred, her shoulders shrugging up to her ears and her hands moving to lock over his. Knowing that she was now awake, he felt free to impel his lips against the back of her neck, which caused a smile to spread across her cheeks.

Stretching her arms over her head and rolling over to face her knight in shining armor, she groaned in relief. "Good morning," she said lightly and planted her hand on his bare chest. Against her flesh, she could almost feel his heart beating, and a sort of warmth spread through her body.

"Good morning, to you." Neji kissed her cheek sweetly. "How are you feeling?"

"Absolutely perfect." She grinned up at him and laid her head on his shoulder before kicking her legs over Neji's thighs. Cuddling closer to him and down further into the sheets, Tenten sighed and took his hand, interlocking her fingers with his. The room around them was completely perfect. If they could live in a world that revolved around one another, then they would live in a perfect universe - a utopia. However, that was not the case, for they had to live with other people. After today, they were going to have to return to their lives in Konoha, and somehow incorporate one another into that life.

"We only get one more night together," Neji murmured, stroking her far deltoid with the tips of his fingers.

"I thought this cruise lasted until Thursday." Tenten raised an eyebrow and allowed her eyes to flicker out the window on the far left of the room. "That's what Lee said, at least."

Neji shook his head. "No, it goes from Thursday to Wednesday. We'll be returning to Konoha tomorrow afternoon."

"Oh," Tenten muttered, her heart dropping inside of her chest. She was always so busy, working at the diner and with the guy's soccer team; how was she going to have any time at all to spend with Neji? That could prove to be quite problematic. What if, after everything was said and done and they finished returning to their normal lives, they grew apart? Realistically, they were spending all of their time together now, and not being able to do so could cause them to drift away from one another.

"What are we going to do when we get back to land?" Neji asked, bringing up the current topic of fret swirling around Tenten's conscience. In all honesty, she didn't want to admit her fear to him. She didn't want him to know that she was fearing a dragged on falling apart and breakup. It was too hard enough to even think about, let alone confess it to her lover.

"I don't know," she finally said reluctantly. "I'll have to return to working at the diner and go back to coaching the high school soccer team."

It was awkward for him to have to bring up, but he took a deep breath and forced the words to come out of his mouth. "Were you living with Lee before this cruise?"

Tenten chuckled at him, clearly seeing the nerves come through his façade. "No, no, don't worry. I have my own apartment. But I will have to get a few things from Lee's place. It'll be awkward, but it should be fine."

"I'll go with you and help you, if you want," Neji offered, but Tenten shook him off nonchalantly, coming up with a legitimate excuse on the spot.

"Sorry, Neji, but your presence would probably make things more weird." Tenten craned her neck back so she could plant a reassuring kiss along his jawline. His eyebrows furrowed as he concerned for her well-being. He didn't really know Lee outside of the few moments that they had met early yesterday morning, but what if he was violent? What if, when Tenten went to retrieve her belongings from Lee's place, he snapped and went completely psycho? He was only concerned because it had happened before in history, and he wouldn't put it past a man of Lee's physique. If he so desired, he could do damage to Tenten's fragile body. Despite the fact that she thinks that she can handle it, he knew that, when it came down to it, Lee would be more able than she was.

"What if goes crazy?" Neji pestered her, the fear seeping into his blood vessels and coursing throughout his entire body. Tenten rolled her eyes at him and weakly succumbed to him.

"Fine, come if you want to," she said, nuzzling her face under his chin. "But if it get's really awkward, you're going to be the one to blame."

"I'll take that," he squeezed her hand and rubbed his thumb across her flesh. "If it means your safety is guaranteed, I'll do anything."

Tenten sighed. "Even though it looks like Lee could tip a tank, he's really harmless. He works out all the time, but I know he would never even think about hurting a fly."

With that, they were silent for many moments to pass, cuddled warmly in one another's embrace. Their breaths were soft, completely surrene within the solitude of their own private heaven. The sounds of ambience from the water crashing gently against the sides of the boat filled their ears, calming the room in its entirety. The two souls lingering within its boundaries rested quietly, drowning within their consciousness. Thoughts of both fear and happiness swarmed their brains, piling them with things to worry about and things to look forward to.

"What would you say if I asked you to come live with me?" Neji's subconscious mind caused him to blurt out without the consent of his prefrontal cortex. Before he had any time to realize what he had asked her, she rolled onto her side and glanced into the wandering eyes of her dear lover. Clearly enough, he was embarrassed for having asked such a thing, and his face grew steamy with boiling blood. "I mean, it would give us more time to see each other in a day and..." he attempted to explain himself, but couldn't find anything that sounded strong enough for an argument.

Tenten's tongue flicked across her bottom lip as she opened her mouth to speak. "Neji Hyuga, nothing could make me happier." His eyes flickered to hers quickly and the moment their eyes met, they fell in love over and over again, their emotions swirling around and around through their bodies with no end in sight. "I want to see you as much as I can. I'm so busy in a day and I'd be crushed if I only got to see you a few times a week."

"Are you serious?" he asked, his brain feeling dumbfounded and not knowing any other words to mold into a legitimate sentence. It was as if he couldn't make any sort of intelligent conversation with her, and as a result, he could feel his flesh burning with discombobulation. Why did he feel so powerless around her? His mind melted along with his heart when their skin brushed along one another; when he saw her beautiful face; when he was emerged in the chocolate heaven of her eyes. Everything about her made him vulnerable to her.

"You're cute when you're lovedrunk, y'know?" she laughed at him and sat up when her stomach viciously roared within her. It was then that she realized that she hadn't eaten in over twenty four hours, and that she was completely and utterly starving. However, she didn't want to get out of bed. She didn't want to be forced out of the sheets and away from the cozy warmth of her paramour. Although, she thought that she would be able to do as she pleased, only until her intestines twisted, throwing a fit at her for not keeping them nourished. Tenten closed her ears off to the sound, forced her nerves to ignore the tightness within her abdomen. If it had been up to her, she would have stayed in bed all day.

Neji threw the sheets off of himself and reached down to grab the clothes that he had forsaken earlier in the morning. Tenten gave him a countenance of pout, and when she attempted to ask him why it was that he was leaving the comfort of their heaven, he shook his head at her.

"You need to eat something, my dear," he said as he slipped into his briefs and immediately after, into his jeans.

"I'm fine," she argued, wanting nothing more than to stay constricted in those sheets with him, flesh to flesh. Her stomach, on the other hand, took the side of her knight, clawing at her and detonating in overly loud gurgles. Even so, she remained with her eyes locked to the midnight moons of the man before her, who continued to retrieve his clothing from the floor and redress himself.

"Your stomach begs to differ," he turned his fingers to the buttons of his shirt, of which he folded into one another so gently and with great skill. He couldn't help but allow his eyes to drizzle down Tenten's naked body, soaking in every detail of her. She was so beautiful; he didn't entirely know how he ended up winning her heart, though he wasn't about to argue her decision.

Tenten scrunched her nose and gave in, which almost surprised her. She had grown up with three older brothers, so she knew how to win in an argument. However, something about Neji made her want to give in and succumb to him. It was amazing how just one person could change another in such a short amount of time.

With a groan, she kicked out of the sheets, standing up and stretching out her vertebral canal. Pops and crackles sounded from various points in her body, breaking the tension from being curled up for so long. Every cell inside her body expanded to its full potential, leaving her internal self feeling completely rejuvenated. Little did she know, her simple morning ritual caused an opposite reaction within the man standing before her.

Neji could feel his body jump, rearing and ready to go the moment she gave the word. With her standing mere inches from him - completely naked - and unknowingly flaunting herself in front of him, he could hardly resist. He was almost baffled at how naturally she strolled around him when she knew that she was exposed. Most women would have hid their bodies from their man, despite the fact that sex had occurred multiple times. But Tenten, she...she just didn't care. She was, by far, the most confident woman he had met, and she was comfortable within her own skin. There was nothing on this earth that could possibly make her sexier.

But somehow, some power greater than his own allowed him to keep control of his body, and he let out a deep and clarifying breath. He plopped down on the bed as he retrieved a clean pair of socks from his suitcase and slipped them over his feet. With ease, he tugged on his Marcatos and snaked the short laces around one another, constricting them to his feet.

Tenten, not bothering with the pointless undergarments that she loathed, slid herself into a pair of crimson athletic shorts that hung around her hips perfectly. The soft material gave her a great range of motion that she was grateful for on a daily basis. Bending at her hips, she tugged out the first shirt that her fingers brushed and threw it over her head, heaving the material down over her breasts and allowing it to fall over her waist. Feeling lazy, she slipped her feet into a pair of cheap flip flops that she had brought along at the last minute.

When Neji stood up, Tenten looked him up and down and compared his appearance to hers, feeling completely insuperior. He was beautiful, casually dressed in a loose button-down shirt with his fancy name-brand shoes. Tresses silky smooth and tied at the small of his back almost made her wish she had allowed her own curls to grow. No matter. He was pulchritudinous; he was perfect.

Even so, despite his virtue, he held out his hand to her with a graceful smile on his face. It didn't seem to matter to him that he was superior to her; he showed her all the compassion in the world. The thought of her physical inferiority slipped her mind the moment she fell into the hypnosis of his eyes, and she took his hand in hers, interlocking her fingers with his and squeezing lovingly.

"Let's go," he said lightly and with a beam, patting his pocket to be sure that his card key was still snuggled comfortably within his jeans.

OoO

Completely full and satisfied, Tenten dragged her feet along the wooden deck and she walked, hand in hand, with Neji. The sky ahead of them was dark, signifying the presence of a storm on the horizon. Seagulls fluttered towards them and glided past the ship as a whole, fleeting the area and running away from the angry clouds.

"What suckish weather to have on our last day," Tenten commented on the weather, pouting almost. Then again, rain may not be a bad atmosphere for the night of their final vacation day.

"Maybe it'll miss us." Neji said, thinking as an optimist and acting as the proton within their relationship. Although, perhaps a light storm wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for their last night on the cruise. But, of course, there was no way he could bring himself to mention that to her. Despite the fact that he was no longer sexually innocent, he almost felt shy about referencing any sexual escapades.

"You know," Tenten began, her voice growing softer as she moved in towards him, her lips almost brushing against his ear. "Rain and sex go together hand in hand quite nicely." Together in unison, they laughed, though before they could whisper any provocative details to one another, a body stopped in front of their path. Their attention drifted away from one another and turned to the figure that they had initially seen from their peripheral vision.

Lee...

Neji's initial reaction was that of loathe for the situation. He didn't want to meet with Lee face-to-face right now; not on the last day that he got to spend with Tenten. She would probably concern herself with his feelings and emotions, despite the fact that they were no longer a couple. That's just the kind of person that she was; she still cared about his well-being, and there was some honor to that.

"Lee..." Tenten murmured, and her grip on her lover's hand loosened only for a moment before squeezing tighter. She felt the need to give Neji an indirect sign that they were okay, that she was not going to change her mind, no matter what argument Lee could throw out. Her lips pursed before she bit them, and she tilted her chin upwards, holding her head high with no regrets. How could she possibly be condemned if she was following the calling of her heart?

Lee's eyes flickered back and forth between Neji and Tenten, then down to their conjoined hands, and then back to stare Neji in the face.

"_You_ are the man I lost Tenten to?" he asked, angered, recognizing the person that he had given relationship advice to the morning before. Not that Neji had asked for advice in the first place, but even still. They had met, and Lee didn't even know who he had been talking to; he spoke with the man who had swept his fiancé off of her feet and away from him.

"Don't blame him," Tenten scolded him, and Lee turned pitiful eyes towards her, begging for her to come back. "He had nothing to do with my decision. He didn't push anything, Lee. I fell in love on my own, and I came to my decision on my own."

"Tenten, in physical appeal, I cannot compete with this man. But I love you so much, it hurts. I am willing to give you anything - I would do anything for you - if you come back." Lee's voice cracked under the pressure of his words and emotions, and Tenten stood before him with a strong and unwavering heart. No matter what he could possibly muster, she would never be able to bring herself to abandon the man of her dreams.

Tenten's eyebrows pulled together and she stared her ex-fiancé, wishing she wouldn't have to do this. But the situation called for it; Lee needed some sort of closure. It may hurt him badly, but perhaps he needed that pain in order to make their parting a clean break, and then he can finally move on with his life.

"You would really do anything for me?" she asked softly, and Neji's heart stopped. Was he going to lose her already? He hardly had any time with her, but if it was what she truly wanted, he couldn't possibly keep her from it. "Lee, if you love me like you say you do, you'll let me go." Neji let out a breath of relief and he unconsciously tightened his grip on her hand. "If you'll do anything for me, then please, let me be with Neji. He's the person I've been looking for, for so long. Would you take that away from someone that you love?"

Lee took a short step backwards in backlash, as if he had just been beaten down by the weight of the world. His face immediately dropped as the sting from the words of his former lover penetrated his deepest being. Those words and the negative feelings that went hand in hand with them would never leave him. He would be forever haunted by this moment, but even still, he loved her to no end.

"You do not love me anymore..." he murmured, and Tenten took in a deep breath. She did still care about him, because that was not something that she could just toss aside like an unwanted scrap of paper. The way she cared about him was something that would last for a while. But she couldn't tell him that, or else he would continue to pester, and she would not be able to lead a happy life with Neji.

"No," she brought herself to say, "I don't."

Lee's eyebrows furrowed as her words cut deep into the tissues of his heart. All of the determination that he had once had inside of him poured out into the sea that surrounded them. It was gone.

"Fine. I will leave you alone. I am sorry, Tenten." And, with that, Lee turned his back on his former lover her flame and walked away.

Neji turned his sorrowful eyes to his paramour, who watched with a quavering face as the emotionally injured man moved farther and farther away from her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, and she nodded, not wanting him to be concerned with her emotions.

"Yeah." She licked her lip, but didn't turn her eyes to him. "It had to be done."


	17. Chapter 17

_Chapter Seventeen_

Neji and Tenten sat down on the deck by the pool, facing one another with their right hands conjoined. Their thumbs faced off nonchalantly in a life-or-death battle of thumb wrestling. While the day around them soared through the hours, they continued to sit there, discussing exactly what was going to happen tomorrow when the boat arrives back to land.

"I don't care what happens," Tenten said, her eyes glued to their metacarpals' fight to the death, "but I'm leaving this ship with you." The sides of Neji's lips pulled upwards in a soft beam at her words, honored that she wanted to be with him just as much as he desired her presence.

"I can probably get Tsunade and Asuma to come over to your place and help you move your things to my house." He went in for the attack, but she snaked out of the way at the last millisecond and attempted to counter attack, having him so close, but he broke through her hold. "They keep bugging me about wanting to meet you anyway, so why not get to know them while packing things and moving them?"

"But I don't want them to get annoyed with having to help with my own issue." Her thumb wiggled, provoking Neji to lunge and attack; he held her for three out of the five necessary seconds before she broke free once again. "I mean, they're _your_ friends. It's not really fair to them that they have to help out a girl they don't even know."

"They'll wear their big kid pants, don't worry." He smirked as he jumped backwards, out of her trajectory. Her movements were quick, but he managed to evade her. "Besides, both of them and then Hinata are pestering me about wanting to meet you. Unless Hinata plans on coming back to Konoha for a little while, she's bum out of luck."

Tenten sighed and allowed Neji to crush her, the five seconds passing by with a fake endeavor to break free. He raised his eyebrow when he won and turned his twin moons to her. She continued to stare at their hands, a sort of fear swooping up and through her stomach. Her face twisted awkwardly as her thoughts began to swirl out of control throughout her mind.

"What's up?" Neji asked her cautiously, concerned that she may be thinking about the confrontation with Lee this morning. What if she regretted what she said, or even worse, what if she was uneasy about her decision to leave him in the first place? He couldn't help but wonder if Lee was on her mind, simply because he had been a big part of her life for so long, and he had only been around for a week.

"What if your friends don't like me?" she asked, turning her eyes upward to meet his, and an instant weight was removed from his heart.

"They'll love you," he told her. "You and Tsunade will get along quite nicely, I believe. Both of you are like one off the guys."

"I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a compliment, or if I'm supposed to take offense to that." Tenten shook her head and laughed half-heartedly. Maybe he was right. After all, he did know his friends better than she did, and from the stories that he had told her, she could see herself and Tsunade being good friends in the future. At least, that's what she hoped for, and in a perfect world, it would happen.

Tenten glanced to her right when she saw movement out of her peripheral vision, and she noticed Natsumi and Kakashi moving closer towards them. Neji turned his eyes only milliseconds after his lover, and he pushed a smile onto his face to greet his mother. He hadn't seen her since Sunday morning, which was only about sixty hours ago, but felt like forever. In unison, both Kakashi and Natsumi lowered themselves to sit on the deck's floor with the young couple, who greeted them respectively with warmth.

"You two have been inseparable since you met," Natsumi said with a shake of her head, her pin-straight midnight tresses fluttering gently with her movements. "How are you going to survive, once we get back onto land?"

Neji abandoned their game of thumb wrestling, instead locking his fingers with Tenten's and resting their conjoined hands on her lap. "Actually, that's what we had just been discussing," he informed his mother. "When we get back to Konoha, Tenten is going to move in with me."

Kakashi glanced back and forth between them, eyeing them with a hint of nervousness in his eyes. "That seems like an awfully big step for people as young as you," he said, and Tenten raised an eyebrow at him. Of course, he was going to act as the father-figure in Gai's absence. "You two have only known each other for less than a week, and you're already talking about moving in. Don't you think you may want to slow things down?"

"We won't get to see each other that much if we don't," Tenten argued, already becoming annoyed with the argument against their moving in together. "Kakashi, you of all people know how much of my time is spent working both of my jobs. Lee and I pretty much only got to see each other on weekends, and he lived on the same side of Konoha as me. Neji lives on the complete opposite end; we'd never get to see each other. I don't want that."

"Would your father agree to this?" he continued to pester, bringing in the fact that her father was completely overprotective of his only daughter. "And your brothers? They'd throw a fit." Kakashi and Gai knew better than anybody else that her brothers may be the only three in the entire world who were more protective of her than her father. They took turns following her around when she had dates, just so they could see who the guy was and what he was like. When she was in high school, they chased boys away all the time, whether a romantic relationship was building or not.

"In all honesty," Tenten began, looking straight into the man's charcoal eyes, "I don't care what they approve of or disapprove of. This is my life and my happiness, and there is nothing in this world that can keep us from being together."

"I didn't say that you two shouldn't be together, I'm just suggesting that you take your relationship and slow down for a little while. Coast at a comfortable speed for a little while, okay?"

"I am comfortable," Tenten argued back, her voice dropping. "I've never been so comfortable in my life. At the same time, I've never been so stimulated and nervous. It's an array of emotions that I've never felt all at the same time before. No man has ever made me feel like a real lady before. Instead, they typically treat me like another one of their dude friends. It makes sense, since I've been around guys my entire life, but it feels nice to be treated like the gender that I was born with."

Neji blushed and turned away in a partial embarrassment. He didn't even realize that he treated her different than everybody else had, and that she was highly appreciative of it. But isn't it common sense to treat the lady of your dreams like the most beautiful goddess in the world? She was his goddess, and he would let her rule his universe, because she, herself, was the very center of his cosmos. There was nothing that he wouldn't sacrifice for her happiness and well-being. But that was only natural. Tenten was his entire world, and he would stop at nothing to see her safe and content, even if it meant giving her up to another man. If she wished him away, he would go; he would follow her every order.

"Above all else," Tenten continued, breaking Neji from his thoughts, "I love him with everything I have. He is the knight in shining armor that I had dreamed about as a teenager. Why would I be willing to separate from him if it's not necessary?"

"But what if it doesn't work out?" Kakashi said, bringing up the seemingly impossible occurrence. "Where are you going to go?"

"It'll work out." Tenten's voice twisted as the thought of breaking up with Neji stabbed her in the chest. "But, by some fluke that it doesn't, then I'll go live with one of my brothers."

"It'll work out," Neji reassured her warmly, squeezing her hand and giving her a loving beam. "I love you."

Tenten's heart fluttered and she couldn't help but to allow a grin to mold her lips. "I love you too, more than you can ever know."

Natsumi couldn't control the warm smile that spread across her cheeks, and so she turned her eyes to the floor while her son had his little moment with the only woman he ever showed eyes for. She was grateful beyond words that Tenten had walked into Neji's life, and that she was able to feel the same way that he felt about her. Their love would last a while, she could tell, because their relationship reminded her of when she met Hizashi. It had been a fluke that she and her late husband had met, and they instantly fell for one another, head over heels. Sex came quick between them, and every time was like a whole new experience. Before they knew it, they were discussing living together and marriage. The irony when comparing her relationship with her son's was impeccable; it was almost falling into place perfectly, which scared her a little bit.

Natsumi reached over and touched Kakashi's hand, entwining her fingers with his carefully. Almost afraid that he would react negatively, she was hesitant, but when he didn't pull away, she took that as a cue that it was okay. If Neji could find love, then so could she, right? Life gives second chances, and now that she had met somebody, she was willing to take up the offer.

Kakashi turned his eyes to the pretty woman that he had met on his vacation, and he smiled at her honestly, genuinely glad that he had met her. Out of every woman that he could have gone after but didn't, he was content that he had talked to her initially; she had been reading his favorite book on the stern. Make-Out Tactics was the third and final novel to the Make-Out series, and he had never known a woman to enjoy reading them. If it hadn't been for that book, it was quite possible that he wouldn't have even approached her those few days ago. It was amazing what one little detail within their meeting could turn into. And who knows what else it could turn into.

Perhaps that was how Neji and Tenten were thinking; that they haven't known each other very long, but even still, they care deeply for one another. Now that they have each other, they certainly couldn't bear to leave the other's side; not until death sets down upon them. That seemed to be a heavy burden for such young lovers. Until the afterlife beseeched one of them, they were planning on staying together. Forever is a long time.

"What about you too?" Tenten turned her eyes to Kakashi and Natsumi, who were instantaneously broken from their thoughts. They sat there, staring at her as if she had three heads, not quite understanding the question and wondering if maybe they had missed something. Luckily for them, the young lady continued. "What are you two planning to do after we leave this ship?"

"Oh, um..." Natsumi and Kakashi exchanged a glance, shrugging. They were drawing a blank, mainly because they had never really discussed it. The thought of leaving one another or not had not really crossed their brains. "We don't know yet," she confessed.

"We'll probably return to our daily lives." Kakashi shrugged, knowing that life was not a fairytale, and that all good things must come to an end eventually. It was inevitable. He and Natsumi came from different worlds; she was a teacher and he was a warrior. How were they supposed to incorporate those two galaxies together?

Tenten and Neji exchanged anxious glances, concerned for the parting of the two who seemed oh so fond of one another. They were just willing to let that go? They have been together nonstop since they met each other; they were both alone and needed to find some sort of love, and now that they found something that could blossom into something truly beautiful, they are willing to toss it aside.

"What?" Neji blinked and stared his mother down. In fear, he worried that, without Kakashi, she would fall back into her bed and lay there awaiting death. He brought her on this trip so that she may find somebody who could make her happy; Kakashi made her happy, clearly. What was going to happen to her once she forsakes that bliss?

"Sweetie, we can't stay on vacation forever," Natsumi said lightly, reaching out and touching her son's free hand. "Once we get back, I have to go back to work, finally, and he goes back into the reserves."

"You're seriously going to give up Kakashi? You're going to sacrifice your happiness?" Neji could feel some sort of anger rising within him. He didn't understand why the topic flustered him so, but it did and he couldn't control the emotions that welled up within him. He didn't want his mother falling ill with depression again. It's been a year since his father was killed, and a year since his mother had taken to the darkness of her room.

"This is life." Her shoulders lifted slightly before falling, and she squeezed Kakashi's hand, feeling where Neji was coming from. It wasn't like she wanted to just up and leave him, but this wasn't some romance novel. "Lovers come and lovers go." Not wanting to talk about it any more, Natsumi stood up, and her love followed her lead, moving to his feet. "We're going to spend some time together tonight, so we won't be at the party." With that, they turned away, leaving Neji and Tenten alone together.

Tenten, concerned for Neji, leaned over and pressed her lips to his cheek, attempting to distract his mind from his mother. Emotions seeped through her body as she thought about what life was going to be like after they return to Konoha. She would have to return to her own life, and she wouldn't be able to spend every waking moment with her beautiful knight. They were going to have to make time in their schedules to spend time together, and within that time, some of the moments were going to have to revolve around sex. It was inevitable. Sex was an important part of their relationship, and they couldn't possibly stay sane by going from having sex multiple times a night to only having it once every other week.

"Are you worried?" he asked her, and she blinked, wondering if he was able to read the thoughts of her mind. Almost stunned, she opened her mouth, but couldn't form any words with her lips. Neji forced a smile on his face and he gazed into her chocolate eyes with a loving passion before pilfering a kiss from her unsuspecting lips. A tingling sensation filled through his body, coursing through his veins like ecstasy. He could feel her concern for the well-being of their relationship, and he was willing to do everything in his humanly power to make it all work.

"No," Tenten whispered when her lips parted from his reluctantly. "I'm not worried at all. I love you, and you love me. It'll all fall into place."

Neji's fingers brushed against her bare thigh and he held her close, almost squeezing her seductively. Goosebumps waved up her flesh, causing her to shiver against him. Even still, her mouth curled up into a grin, and she stood up, holding her hand out to him to help him up.

"Why don't we skip the party tonight," she said and clenched her muscles when he took her hand, heaving him upwards and back onto his feet. A slight breeze forced her hair over her shoulders, and the sweet, natural aroma of her body wafted into his senses, intoxicating him to no end. "We can have our own all-night party." With a wink and a flick of her tongue, she successfully turned on and tempted her lover with a magical night of sex after sex after sex. They would be so tired tomorrow morning but it wouldn't matter. This would be the last time that they would be able to make passionate love freely without having to concern themselves with each other's schedules.

"You have no idea how sexy you are when you talk to me like that," Neji chuckled and constricted a strong arm around her shoulder so that he may bring her closer to him; close enough to where he could turn and plant a kiss on her temple. His arm dropped and he nudged her left hand, giving her the okay to snake her fingers in between his and clasp them together.

In unison, their feet each took a step forward, and they were on their way to heaven. Each heart pounded within the respective chest, and the blood that poured through each body radiated heat between the lovers. Their hands grew warm against one another, but they didn't have the will to unhinge. It was this moment that they realized that they were lucky to be alive, and that they were highly fortunate to have found one another, even when neither one of them had been looking for love. It went to show that one does not find love; love finds them. When they least expected it, Cupid shot his arrows of love and struck them.

And so a beautiful paramour had blossomed.

Neji and Tenten, matching one another step for step, strolled along the side of the boat, moving past the people who were gradually pushing towards the bow in preparation for the final party. They let nobody break their hands from one another, despite the fact that they ended up getting shoved around. No matter; as long as they were together, nothing else mattered.

The further away from the bow they moved, the less concentrated the people were, and soon enough, there was nobody occupying the area around them. They were free to speak how they wished, and take up as much space as they desired. But they didn't want space; they didn't need it. They desired nothing more than physical, mental, and emotional closeness to one another. If they had that, then they were content.

A lot can happen in seven days. Much more than one would think possible. In the blink of an eye, everything can change; it has that power.

Three cracks of a gunshot sounded in the air, echoing into the night, disrupting the peace that originally shrouded them. Suddenly, everything changed.


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter Eighteen_

The world spun around and around and she couldn't seem to focus on reality. Her eyes were wide open, but she couldn't process the images that she was seeing. She didn't know what was happening. All of a sudden, her world went blank, and she could hear a woman's cries; the woman sounded so sad, so distressed. What happened?

Tenten's body reacted, and before she knew it, she realized that it was her screams that she had heard. A pain rippled through her chest as she clutched onto her lover, who allowed himself to fall into the despicable hands of gravity. Thick red ooze stained her flesh and clothes, and slowly, slowly, her mind began to truly process what it was that had happened mere seconds ago.

With wide eyes, she found herself turning in the direction from which the gunfire had sounded, and the shock immediately sent electrical sparks coursing through her veins. Standing on top of the guardrail of the stern with nothing but feet for balance, she saw the individual who had disrupted the peace within her happy life.

Lee...

With a pistol pointed in her direction, she watched in agony as he glared over at her beyond his weapon, scorn and disdain staining his face. His eyes were cold and black as coal, and the tears that streaked his face stained his cheeks. His jaw was clenched tight enough for his teeth to break under the pressure. Tenten watched him as he tossed the gun backwards, discarding it into the ocean below them and ultimately casting aside the evidence.

Tenten didn't know how long they stood there staring at one another, but it couldn't have been long, couldn't have been more than two seconds, at most. Even still, it felt like a lifetime that his harsh gaze hammered into her own, and every nanosecond that ticked by ate away at her heart. She couldn't do it.

Her eyes turned down to Neji, who lay in her arms, bleeding through three holes within his thorax. The blood was everywhere, seeping out of his body with no end in sight, and Tenten found herself hysterical and in tears when her brain finally processed exactly what had happened.

"Neji..." her voice quivered as she bit her lips so hard, trying with a desperate struggle to keep the tears from pouring out of her eyes. She couldn't let him see her fear; she had to keep him hanging on, so that he could cling to life with her. In a raging fury, she squeezed her eyes shut and turned her voice back to the man who attempted to take her lover away from him. "Lee!" she screeched into the night, her own voice terrifying her enough for her body to react with goosebumps.

Lee shook his head, satisfied with himself, somehow justifying the act of attempted manslaughter. His face didn't show any sign that he was thrilled, though. Rather, tears that streamed down his face like waterfalls that refused to dry continued to pour with no end in sight. His jaw loosened, and the instant it did, his lip began to quiver violently, clearly the muscles within his body were just as stressed as he looked. It was a pitiful sight, really, that he had fallen from grace to this level, fallen down farther and farther into the hole with no possible end to it.

"If I can't have you," he forced the words out of his mouth, the tone of his voice cursing Neji for taking Tenten away, then baning Tenten for allowing herself to be swayed away from their love, "then nobody else can." Tenten couldn't push any words out of her mouth; there were no words that she could possibly find that would make the situation nonexistent. Instead, the only thing that she could bring herself to do was watch as he stretched his arms out laterally, ready to take flight. His body plummeted backwards, giving himself over to the relentless hand of gravity, where he fell to his ultimate death in the perpetual watery grave.

The situation at hand was too difficult for Tenten to take in, and she couldn't feel her physical body. Rather, the only thing that caused her any sort of feeling was the laceration of her heart, being ripped open by the most despicable hands. She couldn't breathe...

Turning her eyes down to Neji, she couldn't help the tears from spilling. They just came against her will, falling onto her lover's shoulder. There were people that were rushing from the bow to the stern, but their existence was nothing to her. She could focus on nothing but Neji, lying in her arms and losing life every single second. His eyes desperately wanted to roll backwards within his head, and he had to use every single ounce of strength within his body to keep his eyelids from cutting his spirit from his body.

"Neji?" Tenten choked out as a crowd surrounded them. She didn't notice it until he was on his knees on Neji's opposing side, but Kakashi had rushed over, making it to them before the faceless crowd. He ripped off the shirt that covered his finely toned body and he jammed it down onto the bullet wounds that refused to quit drooling crimson everywhere. He was a mess; a physical mess. For the longest time, his eyes wouldn't focus - couldn't focus - and he couldn't find the strength to breathe in.

"Neji!" Natsumi pushed through the crowd and fell to her knees at her son's head, her patellas diving down into a puddle of blood. The nightmare was coming back...now it wasn't her husband. Rather, Death had decided to fall upon her single beloved son, and he swung his scythe with the intent to murder the life within the mortal.

"Stay with me, Neji." Tenten's voice tried so desperately hard to talk loud enough for his fading hearing to comprehend, but it was too weak. Every syllable quivered as it emerged from her lips, and her arms trembled as she cradled Neji so close to her body. Debilitatingly, Neji's eyes rolled around as if he were trying to refocus on something after being lost in thought. A raspy breath was taken in through his mouth, and something within his throat wheezed. So slowly that she didn't even notice, his hand reached over to clench hers as he hung on for dear life.

"Tenten..." he choked out in a frail voice, his eyes rolling around in their sockets involuntarily, as if attempting to lose focus. He tried. He tried so hard to make his focal point Tenten, and with all the effort he had within his body, he was able to see the tear-streaked face of the angel. "I'm so happy...that you're safe." An sharp inhale caught in his throat, and his body stiffened for a moment in excruciating pain.

"I need a medic!" Kakashi yelled back into the crowd, never once allowing the pressure that he applied to Neji's wounds to let up. Shizune shoved her way through the crowd, shouting at the various people that acted as a blockade.

All of that, though, could not steal Tenten's attention away from Neji, who had a terrifying hazed look within his eyes. She didn't know what to do; she couldn't lose him. It didn't matter what it was about, she was just going to have to keep him talking to her to distract him from the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Talk to me, Neji," she begged of him whenever his eyes swiveled out of focus again. "We're going to have such a happy life together, you know?" She wasn't in control of her body, and she clenched her fingers tighter to his as she put in so much effort to quit crying. "We're going to move in together, and we'll get married eventually - when we're both ready, of course."

Neji forced a painful smile across his cheeks and he somehow found the will to take control of his eyes. "That would make me so happy. I can't wait."

Though she didn't want to focus on it, Tenten's ears picked up on the words that Shizune was telling Kakashi. Each and every letter stung, almost like when it's bitter cold outside and something smacks you across the face. Even still, even though the bright sun that once filled her world was now setting and never to return, she had to cling to hope and pray that Neji would survive.

"Three bullets," Shizune thought aloud as she examined Neji's bloodstained torso. "One through his right rib cage, another seems to be lodged right under his clavicle, and the other looks as though it missed his heart by a fraction of a centimeter."

"Will he live?" Natsumi asked the question that Tenten wanted to know, but was too afraid to hear the answer. Natsumi...she was brave. Far more militant than Tenten could ever hope to be.

Before Shizune could give her answer, Neji choked violently, coughing up an ocean of blood that shot from his throat and drizzled down the sides of his chin. His hand clenched tighter and tighter to Tenten's, as if her hand was the pole furthest from his final destination - his only salvation.

"It looks as though the bullet penetrated his right lung," she managed to say with a shake of her head. As much as she resented having to say it, she forced her words out of her mouth as calmly as she possibly could muster. "That's not a good sign."

Tenten's heart cried out in a bitter agony, tossing and turning within her chest and throwing a fit for the condition of her dear amore. This was all her fault; if only she had never been on this boat. If only she had never collided with Neji and fallen in love with him on that very first day. If only she hadn't left Lee. If only, if only. He could be okay. This wouldn't be happening to him.

The clouds above them were dark, angry, filled with an unending rage as the night went on, but they didn't dare let any drop of moisture escape. Rather, they continued to cover the darkened sky that shrouded the nighttime. The waves below them roared in anguish for the events unfolding. Tragic.

"Neji," Tenten sniffed, readjusting her arm so that she could hold the wounded man more gingerly. For a moment, his eyes went blank, and her heart immediately stopped, and she found herself bawling more than she could have ever imagined. It hurt so bad; this emotional scar was nothing like anything she had ever experienced before in her life, and this pain was something that she would not wish on even her worst enemy. "Talk to me, Neji," she begged, her tears dripping off of her cheeks and onto their conjoined hands. "Stay with me," she pleaded with everything she had, and she felt the pressure on her hand tighten. Neji squeezed their interlocked fingers so firmly that his arm shook in weakness.

"I used to think that I was so unlucky," he murmured, just barely above a whisper, but Tenten heard him loud and clear, as if the message was transferred straight into her mind. No, not her mind. They had a pathway to each other's hearts.

Tenten forced a laugh, attempting so hard and without avail to lighten the mood and keep him talking. "I guess you are pretty unlucky."

"I wouldn't say that...not now." Neji's eyes, though their endeavors to roll back into his skull were strong, were forced through his will to stay focused on Tenten. "I met you, Tenten. You made me...the happiest man alive," he gasped out loud, choking up more blood that stained his lips crimson. The stench of iron burned Tenten's nose, and she knew that once this was all over, she would fear this redolence for the rest of her life. The olfactory sense is actually the closest of the five senses related to memory; if she were to ever smell such a metallic malodor again, her mind would take her back to this heartbreaking moment.

One of the ship's crewmembers toppled through the pile of people that swarmed them and he leaned down towards Shizune, who now aided Kakashi in applying pressure to Neji's bullet wounds. His face was filled with complete and utter concern as his lips parted just enough for him to speak the few words of a message.

"The captain is making a beeline course for land," he relayed the message loyally. "Captain already has arrangements for an ambulance to be stationed there."

Shizune nodded, understanding everything that was happening, but never letting the pressure on the young man's wounds cease. "Understood," she replied. "That is much appreciated."

"Hear that, Neji?" Tenten forced a half-hearted smile on her face in order to convince Neji that he was going to be saved. "They're going straight back to land and we're going to get you to a hospital. They're going to fix you."

Neji's lip trembled with the fear and the sadness that rattled his body. He didn't know how much longer he could cling to this world; there was a ruthless game of tug-of-war between Death and his spirit, and he felt himself losing.

"I'll be there for you," she told him with a tone of reminiscent planning, "every day. I won't leave your side until the nurses kick me out. I'll stay with you, and I'll do everything that you want me to do. I'm yours, forever."

Neji opened his mouth to speak, but much to no avail, he couldn't seem to form words with his lips. Rather, short puffs of raspy air exited through his trachea, along with the blood that seeped up through his windpipe. He felt as though he was drowning in a sea of blood, as if the thick liquid was choking him from the inside out. It was a terrifying feeling, far worse than inhaling water on accidental circumstances. With the panic of drowning within the ooze taking over his body, he could feel his consciousness slipping away from him as Death yanked hard on his soul in an audacious attempt to tear it from his physical body.

Tenten watched in excruciation as the attempt to speak only brought Neji more pain, and only caused him to cough up more blood. Her eyebrows furrowed so tightly and her face distorted into a smarting grimace. She was the reason that he was hurting. It was all her fault. She was going to have to live with the guilt of this memory for the rest of her existence.

"I'm sorry, Neji," she sniffed and gazed down upon his unwavering face. Her heart stopped for many moments while she obsessed over what may have happened to him. However, when his eyes rolled around to face her, she let out a breath and felt an endless stream of tears pouring out of her eyes. "Please, don't stop squeezing my hand," she said, feeling his grip on her loosen dramatically as his body continued to grow weaker and weaker. "You don't have to talk, if it will only hurt you. Just listen to me and don't let go of my hand." As if trying to reassure herself, Tenten let out a high concentration of air that she had been unknowingly holding within her lungs. "You're going to live, Neji," she said almost pitifully. "You're going to be okay. We're going to make it out of this together, okay? We can live nothing but a happy life together, okay?"

Natsumi's heart twisted brutally as she watched her son grow more frail and more fragile with every blink of an eye. His body barely moved, and the light that used to shine bright within his eyes had dimmed and diminished into nothing. The color in his face faded and he was completely pale under the moonlight. The blood that stained his skin seemed endless, despite the fact that there would be an end to it - an end with only two possibilities...

Tenten held on to Neji with her entire heart and soul, attempting to show his faltering eyes her strength. Her entire body trembled while she held him so close to her, his head resting in the crease of her elbow. She nurtured him with all of the emotion that poured out of her, hoping, praying, that she could nurse him with life, long enough until they could reach the shore and get him medical attention. Her muscles within her hand contracted around his, giving him the reassurance that he was going to be okay. Together, they could overcome this; they could overcome anything that the heavens could throw at them.

They could do it, right? Somehow, as the night pushed on, Tenten began losing the faith and confidence. Neji continued to grow worse, and his eyes could no longer focus on any single object. It was all he could do to keep them from rolling back into his head, and doing so took so much strength out of him. The blood continued to overflow out of his body, despite the fact that Kakashi and Shizune used their entire bodies to apply a strong and constant pressure. They couldn't stop the vital fluid from splattering out of his throat.

Tenten didn't know how much time had passed since Lee had done the despicable act of attempted murder and suicide. Her eyes burned from the bitter tears that just continued to stream from her eyes uncontrollably, and her heart felt as though somebody impaled her straight through the chest. The ripping agony never once ceased. The only thing that she could do that could possibly even begin to make her forget about the pain - if only for a little bit - was to keep holding on to him, and keep talking to him. She had to keep him alive.

With a heart-wrenching sorrow, Tenten forced a pitiful beam on her face and allowed her lips to part so that she may speak. "I can't wait to meet Asuma and Tsunade, you know," she whispered, not knowing what else to say. "And Kurenai. I bet she's really pretty. We can all go on dates together and we'll have so much fun, right?" The lump in her throat forced her to quit speaking, and she crushed her eyelids together in complete torment. "We'll get married one day, and we'll have the cutest little kid, and I know that we'll both love the snot out of that kid. We'll watch him grow up together, and it'll take so many years, but it'll feel like the blink of an eye, right?" Tenten forced out an odious laugh that turned into the sound of woeful sobbing. With a quivering voice, she forced herself to continue, because she had to keep him alive. "We'll have such a happy life together, Neji. I know we will. I..." Tenten shook her head in grief, forcing the terrifying thoughts of death out of her mind.

He couldn't die. Not here, not now. They were going to grow old together, yet still fall in love again and again with every passing day. The product of their undying love would be their unending bliss within a world that was relentless. She would see to it that they would continue to fall asleep within each other's arms, and wake cuddled so close. Every day would be beautiful, and every night a passionate lullaby of harmonious love. Life would be too perfect, and they would hate to have to think about the next life.

As long as they were together, nothing else mattered. Forever and always.

She couldn't possibly let go of these memories-to-be; they were too precious already to her, and there was no way in hell that she could give it up without a massive fight. With a clasp of Neji's hand, Tenten vowed to herself that she would get him through this mess, because it was her fault. No, not just because she was guilty of this, but because she loved him.

"You won't die, Neji," she hummed with a wavering verdure. "You're going to be okay, you hear me?" Her teeth unconsciously chomped down on her bottom lip and a vile sapor infected her mouth in its entirety. "I love you so much. I won't let you die!"

...Neji never made it through the night...


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter Nineteen_

Tenten tucked her hair back behind her ear and sat down in the luscious grass below her feet. The sky above her was a beautiful blue, with the most majestic cululous clouds that seemed to dance throughout their peaceful stage. The temperature that surrounded her body was warm, and the humidity was kept on the down-low, creating the perfect weather for a late summer's day. She took in a single breath, breathing in the scent of flowers that were spread throughout the cemetery, and she laid her own single red rose on the flat gravestone.

_Neji Hyuga_

_ July 3 1989, - September 19, 2012_

She closed her eyes, only for a moment, and prayed that he was having a happy second life in the heavens, where he truly fit in. Physically, he was way too beautiful for this earth, and God must have realized that and wanted him all for Himself. As long as he was no longer suffering, Tenten could live with the pain of being left behind. So long as his eyes shed no more bitter tears, then she would shoulder the burden of living. If peace is now with him, then she would endure anything that his absence could throw at her.

Gazing up to the sea of clouds above her, Tenten leaned backwards, shoving the fleshy part of her hands into the grass behind her. It was hard, a lot of the times, not to think about him and the tragedy that struck their lives. It was difficult, whenever the guilt pulsed through her entire body in a massive rage in an attempt to drown her in the overwhelming sorrows. In all honesty, it probably would have, had it not been for the people around her that she had never met before.

Neji's friends...they were such nice people. Tsunade and Asuma, whenever they had figured out that Tenten was the lover that Neji had been completely and utterly psyched about, had immediately confined her in their empathy. Both of them had offered her the comfort of their apartments, and she had been touched by the way that they cared. Hinata, too, came back from Hokkaido, and she smothered Tenten in both her own sorrow and in the tender care that she needed.

The funeral was the most difficult thing she had ever experienced in her young life, and she didn't entirely know if she was going to be able to survive it. The thought of hyperventilating and losing consciousness was sure to become a reality, and it almost had. Had Tsunade and Dan not been there... If Asuma and Kurenai hadn't attended... Hinata and Naruto were... They were all there, and each and every one of them expressed their woe in their unique ways. Everybody who was grieving was able to lament together. Really, Neji had so many wonderful people in his life, and he probably didn't even know it. Perhaps he could see past those thick clouds in the sky, and see just how much the people that continued to walk this earth cared for him.

Natsumi had fallen into a deeper depression after the funeral had ended, and Tenten couldn't bring herself to go visit, because it was her fault for the death of Neji. Natsumi probably wanted nothing to do with her; she wouldn't even open the door for Kakashi whenever he tried to see her. She didn't want anything to do with the world anymore, and simply awaited her death. The only person who had been able to talk Natsumi into getting out of bed and leaving the house was Hinata.

"I figured I would find you here," a tiny voice broke out from behind her, and Tenten whipped her head to look over her left shoulder. Hinata strolled through the grass, beautiful as ever, in a lavender dress. At her side was her dear fiancé, Naruto, who grinned a goofy grin and waved at her with the hand he had free.

Naruto had proposed to Hinata quite soon after Neji's funeral service, and her family looked down on him for doing such. They had believed him to be using the extremely active emotions of a girl who had just lost her cousin and best friend. Hinata - no matter what state of mind she was in - could not pass up the opportunity to agree to be his wife. It was something that she had dreamed of since she first formally met him. She wouldn't allow any scorn from any party, whether it be her family or the people around them, to prevent her from fulfilling this dream. When the ring was placed on her sacred left ring finger, Hinata decided to move out of her parents' house and travel back to Konoha.

Tenten couldn't be more happy for them, and she wondered when the wedding was going to be; they had been engaged for quite a while now.

Hinata lowered herself onto her knees and sat on her heels on Tenten's left flank, combing the long strands of midnight black hair out of her face. Naruto, much more ungracefully, brought himself down to the ground, plopping down on his glutes. Without breaking their conjoined hands, Hinata outstretched her right arm and placed a bouquet of a half-a-dozen Larkspurs on the tombstone with her cousin's name on it.

"I can't believe it's been almost two years since he died," she murmured, bowing her head for a moment to pray for his soul's safety and happiness. While she didn't ask - and would never ask - Tenten what it was like that night, she couldn't stop herself from wondering. It had to be traumatizing, to witness all of it firsthand, to know that the man that you loved so dearly had died in your arms. When she would think about it, her mind attempted to put it into perspective for her, and would place Naruto in Neji's place, and her in Tenten's. The thought of it terrified her dreams, and sometimes she would wake in a cold sweat. But no matter how many horrifying dreams she had, and no matter how many times she jumped out of her terror, Naruto was always laying in the same bed, right by her side.

It was different for Tenten, because if she had those dreams and woke up in the middle of the night, she would be reminded that it wasn't just a dream. It was a memory. And Neji would never be there with her when she woke completely startled. None of them could ever truly comprehend the kind of torture that Tenten hid behind her mask. Deep inside, she was probably screaming and writhing in an ungodly pain, and nobody could ever fix that.

"How are you doing, Tenten?" Hinata asked softly, cautious of the emotions that may well up within seconds. Tenten sighed and turned her eyes to the slab of granite that claimed this spot as Neji's. Of course, there was so much heart-wrenching sorrow that infected her day after day, but she couldn't tell them that. She had to stay positive.

"I'm okay," she said, nibbling on her lip. "But sometimes, I can't help but wish that I had never gotten on that boat in the first place. I wish that Lee would have proposed to me just a week later. If he had, then he would have never had the chance to book that crusie."

"Do you regret loving Neji?"

Tenten shook her head, her locks swaying with her movement. "I could never regret loving him. But it was because I loved him so much that I regretted meeting him. Had we never crossed paths, then he would still be alive right now, and perhaps he would have found a girl that wasn't engaged."

Hinata took in a breath and flicked her tongue lightly against her bottom lip as she prepared to reveal a secret about Neji that she had never told anyone. She was the only one who knew, and she wondered what Tenten's reaction would be if and when she found out. It was something that he had said to her one day that had almost foreshadowed this happening, though she was well aware that Neji knew nothing of his impending death.

As if to give moral support and reassurance to his terribly shy love, Naruto brushed his thumb gingerly across the back of her hand.

"When I talked to Neji on the phone - while you guys were on the cruise - he told me something," she said, her eyebrows coming together as the words that she had held back for two years finally made their break for the open air. "He told me that - because of you, Tenten - that if he were to die right then and there, he would die a happy man." Tenten turned her eyes to the cousin of her late lover and used every ounce of strength within her to keep the ocean of tears behind a barricade. "You were the greatest thing that ever happened to him, Tenten. You truly made him happy, even if it was only for a week."

The dam broke, and all of the emotions came back to her, draining out of her body in the form of a salty stream. Neji had been the greatest thing in her life, and she wanted to protect and preserve their love. But she couldn't even save him. Despite the fact that she promised him that he wouldn't die, that she wouldn't let him die...he lost all of the strength left in his body.

_"I believe that his lungs may have filled with blood,"_ Shizune's hushed words to Kakashi afterwards came back to her as the memory of Neji's departure became more vivid again. _"He drowned."_

That day...oh how many times would she have to relive that day?

"Looks like we're a little late," a strong and independent voice sounded from behind them, and the three turned to see Tsunade and Dan making their way through the cemetery in each other's hands. Tenten was quick in wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, acting as though she wasn't just in hysterics. Her quick fix wasn't enough to hide from Tsunade, who was swift to perceive, but she didn't say anything indicating her knowledge. Together, she and Dan laid tulips down with the rest of the flowers, then sat to Tenten's right side.

"At least we got here before Asuma." Dan noticed with a smirk on his face and when he saw Tenten, he gave her an honest smile that attempted to mask his sympathy. The day was too beautiful for tears, and so he attempted to lighten the mood.

"This wasn't even planned." Tenten's eyebrows furrowed as a tiny smile formed on her face. She didn't do very much of that lately, but she tried any time that she could. If Neji was looking down on her, she didn't want him to see her sadness; that may only make him sad, too. If she had to force a smile on her face in order for Neji to be content in his life after, then she would do it.

"Even still," Tsunade flipped her long blonde tresses over her shoulder and extended her neck backwards, searching the beautiful sky, "he better not forget about this day."

"Neji's birthday," Hinata sighed and turned her eyes to the pile of chromatic flowers that lay upon the grave of her cousin. "He would have been twenty-five today."

"Hard to believe he's been gone for two years already," Tsunade took in a breath and closed her eyes, reminiscing about the times that they had spent together in the past. It was depressing that such a young and promising man would have to be taken away from this life so quickly. "Asuma and I had told him that if he didn't find a lucky lady on that boat, we were going to set him up with one of Kurenai's girlfriends."

"Really?" another voice ricocheted off of the backs of their heads and the sound of light feet against the grass became more dominant as their party grew silent. In complete and utter unison, the five of them glanced back to see the young and newly wedded couple strolling casually towards them. "This is the first time I've ever heard of such a scheme," Kurenai turned a look to Asuma, who blushed and averted his eyes from her.

"Hey, we thought you weren't going to make it," Dan said with a laugh, the mood within the entire atmosphere suddenly becoming brighter upon the couple's arrival. Tenten, knowing that she couldn't continue to sulk for the rest of her life in self-pity, gave her friends a beam.

"How was the honeymoon?" Naruto asked, giving Asuma a quick raise of his eyebrows.

"It was nice," he replied, lowering himself onto the ground at an angle, forming a semicircle with his group of friends that had remembered Neji's birthday. "Osaka was very pretty, and the house that we stayed in out in the country was perfect."

"We were actually throwing around the idea of raising our children there," Kurenai beamed, and Tenten watched as her thumb toyed with the diamond ring that decorated her finger, along with the golden wedding band. While the feelings of joy for her friends' happiness peppered in her veins, the dolesome thoughts of 'what-if' swarmed throughout her brain, as if they were running a relay. Had Neji made it through that night and survived the calamity, they probably would have had their wedding, and their honeymoon would have been the greatest moment of her life. If they thought that their nighttime escapades on the ship were crazy...

She couldn't even think about it anymore. It excruciating her soul with no end in sight. She just had to face the harsh and bitter reality: Neji was no longer with her. He was dead. One day, she hoped, one day she would be okay. Of course, she wouldn't be completely healed, but one day her memories wouldn't cause her pain, rather, make her smile. The time that they had shared with one another was priceless, and it was something that she couldn't get back. That being so, she was going to have to live with those memories and find a way to connect them with feelings of bliss. Together, when she was with Neji, she could conquer anything.

"Speaking of honeymoons," Dan leaned forward and his eyes penetrated the silent couple on the end, who looked like deer caught in headlights, "have you guys finally set a date for your wedding?"

When neither of them had an immediate answer, Tsunade butted in with a snicker. "You've been engaged for so long. What are you waiting for?"

Tenten turned her attention to Hinata, who had been goggling at her with a sad spark within her eyes, and when their gazes met, Hinata nervously turned her attention to the grass below her. Tenten licked her lip, a light bulb immediately flicking on and she was the first to realize just why she and Naruto hadn't had their moment yet.

"Hinata..." she murmured, and the reserved cousin of her late lover forced her eyes - the alluring gray moons that were identical to Neji's - to face Tenten reluctantly. The sorrow that filled them was almost pitiful, and guilt stampeded through every vessel within Tenten's body.

"Kurenai and Asuma's wedding," she murmured softly, "our wedding... You and Neji were going to get married. I didn't want to hurt you by having you attend another ceremony that would remind you of what would have been."

Tenten forced a smile onto her face and laughed half-heartedly. "Hinata, why delay your happiness because of me? I'm so happy for you - and I was filled with joy when Asuma and Kurenai got married last month." With a sigh, she turned her eyes up to the sky blue ocean that hovered over their heads peacefully. "I'm not some miserable hag, you know. I won't suck the joy out of your lives."

Hinata pressed her single hand and her hand that was interlocked with Naruto's onto her lap and she allowed her eyelids to close over her eyes for a moment. Her long lashes brushed her skin and flicked upwards in a pretty curve.

"I wanted to make sure that you were happy," she confessed. "I told Naruto that I didn't want to get married until you found somebody else who could make you happy. He understood my wishes, and so we've been engaged for a little under two years."

"I loved your cousin," Tenten said in a little over a whisper. "I loved him so much. It's because I loved him that I don't want to rush into another relationship. He was the man of my dreams, and the dream morphed into a nightmare and ended almost as quickly as it had started. There will never be another man out there like Neji, and that's something I'm still trying to get over. But please, don't delay your happiness because of me. Get married, have your moment and live your life the way you want to. I'll be there cheering you on!"

The cemetery was soft and silent for a moment, ears only allowing the sound of nature to invade their senses. Nobody really, entirely knew what to say; for so long, Hinata and Naruto had been hiding the secret behind their stalling their wedding day. Nobody knew why, and now that they did, they could really see where Hinata was coming from. Tenten was their friend, after all, and she was fragile, which, according to the way Neji spoke about her while they were on the cruise, was a state achieved after his death. Then again, who wouldn't become fracturable after having their lover die in their arms? Not to mention the fact that the whole reason he was gone was because of her jealous ex.

"Get married, guys." Tenten broke the silence, turning eyes that were gradually gaining their lumination back. "Don't worry about me. This is your time; why put it off?" As convincing as she tried to be, Hinata kept her eyes turned to the grassy grave, watching as each tuft fluttered in the breeze. Tenten sighed, knowing that in order to get both of them psyched, she was going to have to pull out all the stops and tap into the reserves. "Y'know, I know that you're innocent, Hinata. I don't know how you can stand to put off marriage. You can really withstand the urge to get naked and tear Naruto apart in the passionate heat of sex?" Hinata gasped and her face immediately burned a bright red, and she couldn't force herself to turn her eyes to anybody. Naruto's complexion followed the lead of his fiancé, and he couldn't help but grin a dorky grin and bite his lip. Tsunade let out a single outburst of a laugh, covering her mouth and nuzzling her head into Dan's neck. Asuma and Kurenai snickered silently, exchanging a quick kiss between husband and wife. "If you can do that, you've got greater power than I do."

"M-maybe..." Hinata's voice was so soft and so nervous, and it reminded Tenten of the way she used to speak whenever she would visit their public high school. "...it might not be the _worst_ thing to get married soon."

Tenten smiled an honest beam, a sudden weight lifted from her chest. She turned her attention back to the gravestone of her lover, and seeing the flowers that were piled on top of it with a tender love. While all of the pain from losing him was not completely gone - and most likely would never truly fade - she felt okay. Compared to the torture she had been experiencing within her brain, okay was the best feeling in the world.

_Neji, are you watching? Everybody is so happy together. Asuma and Kurenai's wedding was beautiful, and I wish you would have been there with me to see them take that step within their lives. I'm sure Hinata will make a stunning bride, and I know that, if you can see her, you'd be so proud of your cousin. She reminds me of you, actually; the innocence, I mean. I remember everything about you so vividly, it's almost like you're standing next to me sometimes. Are you? If only I could feel your presence. If you are here, and if you are listening, I mean what I said: I can't see myself wanting another relationship. I had found you, and there is no doubt in my mind that we were supposed to be together, even if it only was for a week. _

_ Neji, my sweet, sweet love, I'm sorry that I couldn't save you. I held onto you so tightly, and I promised that I wouldn't let you die. But you never made it through the night. I'm so sorry. _

_ Neji, my knight in shining armor, are you happy? If you are, then I'll be okay. You're no longer in pain, no longer suffering; I will endure anything to make that last for you. Even if it means walking this world alone and without you. I'll do it. I'll do it all for you._

_Neji, my beautiful lover, everything that happened between us on that ship: I will never forget. _

_~I Will Never Forget: La Fine~_

_A note from the author: I'm sorry guys! I was so sad when Neji died! I didn't want that to happen, but other experienced writers out there will know that sometimes, it's not about what you [the author] wants. Sometimes, it just has to happen. I experience that a lot within my writing, and I feel almost powerless against what must happen. And I am terribly sorry for the LeeTen moment in Chapter Two, because I am a hardcore NejiTen fan. Some people were complaining about how this is a NejiTen story, and LeeTen should not be in here. My reaction is: I'm sorry, but you must understand that it adds complexity to the story. If LeeTen had not initially been in this story, I wouldn't have had a story. _

_I do hope, though, that you all enjoyed this fiction. I think it was hard to write in the perspective of Tenten, because I can't really relate to her, which is why I'm so happy to be coming back to Hinata in "Encore Lover." Yes, that's right! "Encore Lover" will be making its debut very, very soon! ("Encore Lover" is the sequel to "Backcourt Lover"). It's going to be so much fun, and I do hope it lives up to its predecessor!_

_Thank you so much for reading!_

_~voodooprincess1331_


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